RARY OF CONGRESS. 

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I'XITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 
L688 Died Mi i 



THE 



LIFE AND MISSION 



OF 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 



BY 



BENJAMIN WORCESTER. 



" Nunc licet intellectualiter intrare in arcana fidei." 



z.2 



\TUE LIBRARY 
(OF CONGRESS 

tt^jHlNOTON 



83' 



BOSTON: 
ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
1883. • 






Copyright, 1883, 

By Benjamin Worcester. 



i 



Cambritjgc : 

PRINTED KY JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
UNIVERSITY PRESS. 






PREFACE. 



THE good name of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG is no 
longer in question. In place of being denounced as 
a heretic, he begins to be recognized by Christian 
students in all denominations as a pioneer of the ad- 
vanced theology fast finding its way into the thought 
of the Churches. 

We need not now documents to prove the ability, 
the soundness of mind, the laborious acquisitions, the 
deep philosophic insight, the sincerity and the honor 
of the man. Rather, we want to be shown from the 
limitations of his human nature, from the trials and 
the training given his heart and mind, from the grace 
and the new spirit vouchsafed him, on the one hand ; 
and on the other hand, from the need, the nature, and 
the result of his mission, — that this was the work, 
not of his own will and unaided intellect, but of the 
will of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of 
His Holy Spirit. 

In this study, while the spirit of adulation finds no 
place, our love, esteem, and sympathy cannot but 



IV 



PREFACE. 



greatly increase, as with our fellow-servant we learn 
to give all the praise to Him whom he loved to serve. 
And our task is reduced to setting in such order the 
things most surely believed among us, as will cause 
us to listen to Swedenborg's own words and to be- 
lieve with him that they were not from himself, but 
from the Spirit of Truth. 

Of all previous biographies of Swedenborg men- 
tion will be made in the Appendix. Let us here but 
express our obligations to the first known to us, by 
Mr. Nathaniel Hobart, which will always be held in 
grateful remembrance ; and to the most complete by 
far, the collection of Documents, in three large octavo 
volumes, by the indefatigable Rev. R. L. Tafel; from 
which, as in most authentic form, the greater part of 
our material has been drawn. To these Documents 
and to Swedenborg's published works the student is 
referred for further research. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

page 

Introductory. — Swedenborg's Place in History. ... i 

CHAPTER II. 
Swedenborg's Parentage 15 

CHAPTER III. 
Childhood and Youth. — Studies Abroad. — Daedalus . 33 

CHAPTER IV. 
Assessorship. — Employment by Charles XII 59 

CHAPTER V. 
Twenty Years' Labor. — Opera Philosophica S3 

CHAPTER VI. 
Philosophical Studies 109 

CHAPTER VII. 
Philosophical Studies Concluded 135 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Spiritual Preparation 169 

CHAPTER IX. 
Opening of Spiritual Sight 195 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

page 

Opening of the Scriptures 229 

CHAPTER XL 
Assessorship. — The Arcana. — The Apocalypse . . . .261 

CHAPTER XII. 
Doctrinal Treatises 291 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Conclusion of Life. — Friends of Later Years . . . .321 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Stories of Spiritual Sight. — Dr. Beyer. — Opposition by 
the Clergy 345 

CHAPTER XV. 
Friendly Accounts of Swedenborg 371 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Home Life of Swedenborg 393 

APPENDIX. 

T-XII. Notes Appended to Text 419-442 

XIII. Portraits of Swedenborg 443 

XIV. Writings of Swedenborg 444 

XV. Principal Dates in Swedenborg's Life .... 453 

XVI. Biographies of Swedenborg 454 

INDEX 459 



THE LIFE AND MISSION 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG 



THE LIFE AND MISSION 



EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. — SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

Never had the outlook for Christianity been darker than 
during the period embraced by Swedenborg's life, from 1688 
to 1772. In the time of Martin Luther the corruptions of 
the Roman Catholic Church were possibly more flagrant, — 
although, says Mosheim, in the seventeenth century "the 
corruptions, both in the higher and in the inferior orders of 
the Romish clergy, were rather increased than diminished, as 
the most impartial writers of that communion candidly con- 
fess." x But in the determined and unscrupulous effort through 
Whe Jesuits to enslave the world, as witnessed in the cruel 
expulsion of Protestants from France in 1685, and in the per- 
sistent attempt to substitute its own authority with the people 
for that of the Word of God, as witnessed in the Bull Uni- 
genitus, 2 1713, the Church at Rome was clearly pressing on 
to its doom, as was seen by its best friends and lamented 
with piteous wail. 3 

In the Protestant Church, on the other hand, the very in- 
stinct of rational thought which had given it birth was now 
casting off all restraint, denying its creed, and on the point of 
rejecting even "the Headstone of the corner." The result 

1 Maclaine : Mos/icim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. § ii. part i. ch. 36. 

2 Appendix I. 3 Appendix II. 



2 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

might have been different had charity been given its due 
place in the scheme of the Reformers. But now kindness of 
heart as well as sound reason revolted against the bondage of 
faith alone, found not less galling than that of Rome herself. 
"Take away," cried Chillingworth, " this persecuting, burn- 
ing, cursing, damning of men for not subscribing to the words 
of men as the words of God ; require of Christians only to 
believe Christ, and to call no man Master but Him only ; let 
those leave claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and let 
them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it likewise in their 
actions ; in a word, take away tyranny, which is the devil's 
instrument to support errors, . . . and restore Christians to 
the first and full liberty of captivating their understandings to 
Scripture only." 1 "The opinions expressed on the part of 
the so-called orthodox party" (in Germany), says Dr. Dorner, 
"show that the Church had again become to them the self- 
centred possessor of direct Divine authority, endowed, once 
for all, with Divine powers and privileges ; as if the Holy 
Spirit had relinquished His direct relation to souls, nay, had 
abdicated His power and energies in favor of the Church and 
her means of grace." 2 

John Albert Bengel, perhaps the greatest theologian of his 
generation, lived and died (1752) in expectation of a speedy 
judgment. "It is," said he, "as if spiritual winter is corning 
on ; it is a miserably cold time, and an awakening must 
come. . . . The power of reason and nature is exaggerated 
beyond measure, so that we shall soon not know what is faith 
and grace, and, in a word, what is supernatural. . . . The 
doctrine of the Holy Spirit is already gone ; that of Christ 
is on the wane ; and that of the creation hangs by only a 
slender thread. ... It is made a part of politics to so 
act and speak as to leave no trace of religion, God, and 
Christ" 3 

1 Li 1 11 5ti PHEN : History of English Thought in thciSth Century, i. 76. 

2 Dr. I. A. Dorni r : i °rotestanl Theology, Eng. ed. ii. 213. 

3 HAG2NBACH : History of the Church in the lSth and \c)th Centuries, i. 3S3. 



DECAY OF RELIGION. 3 

"As far as Christology is concerned," says Dorner, "a 
declension from the ancient Lutheran doctrine concerning the 
Person of Christ had long set in even among the orthodox 
divines. The edifice of Lutheran Christology had been, 
for the most part, already forsaken by its inhabitants before 
1750. 1 ... A deistical atmosphere seemed to have settled 
upon this generation, and to have cut it off from vital com- 
munion with God. To order one's self according to mere 
natural reason and self-complacency in this finite state of ex- 
istence, and to think of nothing beyond it, were regarded as 
true wisdom and sound common-sense. Religion was con- 
verted into morality, and morality into the politic teaching of 
Eudsemonism, in a coarser or more refined form." 2 

"Atheism," said Leibnitz, in the early part of the century, 
" will be the last of heresies ; and in effect indifference, which 
marches in its train, is not a doctrine, for genuine Indifferents 
deny nothing, affirm nothing ; it is not even doubt, for doubt 
being suspense between contrary probabilities supposes a pre- 
vious examination : it is a systematic ignorance, a voluntary 
sleep of the soul. . . . Such is the hideous and sterile mon- 
ster which they call indifference. All philosophic theories, all 
doctrines of impiety, have melted and disappeared in this de- 
vouring system, . . . this fatal system, become almost uni- 
versal. . . . The state to which we are approaching is one 
of the signs by which will be recognized that last war an- 
nounced by Jesus Christ : Nevertheless, when the Son of Man 
cometh, shall He find faith on the earth ? " 3 

In England the Deistic atmosphere brooded over the land 
through the first half of the eighteenth century, then coming 
to final dissolution in the scepticism of Hume, who issued 
his Natural History of Religion in 1 75 7, and therein attempted 
to show that Religion owed its origin to the tendency of the 
human mind to personify the causes of phenomena. In the 
same year, 1757, appeared Brown's Estimate of the Manners 

1 Dr. Dorxer : Op. cit. ii. 274. 2 Ibid. ii. 296. 

3 Palmer : Treatise on the Church of Christ, i. 34S. 



4 SWEDEN BORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

and Principles of the Ti?nes, showing their chief characteristics 
to be " a vain, luxurious, and selfish effeminacy." " Our prin- 
ciples," said he, "are as bad as our manners ; religion is uni- 
versally ridiculed, and yet our irreligion is shallow. Thus by 
a gradual and unperceived decline, we seem gliding down 
from ruin to ruin ; we laugh, we sing, we feast, we play, and in 
blind security, though not in innocence, resemble Pope's 
lamb, licking the hand just raised to shed his blood." 1 

In 1690 John Evelyn had noted in his Diary the predic- 
tion of the Bishop of St. Asaph that the judgment would come 
in thirty years ; and he himself, gentleman and courtier, wrote 
that if ever corruption betokened a judgment at hand, then 
was the time. In 1713, in a Pastoral Charge to his clergy, 
Bishop Burnet said : " I see the imminent ruin hanging over 
the Church, and by consequence over the whole Reformation. 
The outward state of things is bad enough, God knows ; but 
that which heightens our fears rises chief from the inward 
state into which we have unhappily fallen." In 1748 the 
excellent David Hartley said, in his Observations on Man : 

"There are six things which seem more especially to 
threaten ruin and dissolution to the present States of Chris- 
tendom — 

" 1. The great growth of atheism and infidelity, particularly 
amongst the governing parts of the States. 

"2. The open and abandoned lewdness to which great 
numbers of both sexes, especially in the high ranks of life, 
have given themselves up. 

"3. The sordid and avowed self-interest which is almost 
the sole motive of action in those who are concerned in the 
administration of public affairs. 

"4. The licentiousness and contempt of every kind of 
authority, divine or human, which is so notorious in inferiors 
of all ranks. 

"5. The great worldly-mindedness of the clergy and their 
gross neglect in the discharge of their proper functions. 
1 Leslie Stephen : Op. cit. ii. 195. 



IMMORALITY OF THE TIME. 5 

"6. The carelessness and infatuation of parents and ma- 
gistrates, with respect to the education of youth, and the 
consequent early corruption of the rising generation." 

According to Abbey and Overton, — 

" It was about the middle of the century when irreligion 
and immorality reached their climax. In 1753 Sir John 
Barnard said publicly: 'At present it really seems to be 
the fashion for a man to declare himself of no religion.' 
In the same year [Archbishop] Seeker declared that immo- 
rality and irreligion were grown almost beyond ecclesiastical 
power. ... If we ask what was the state of the lower classes, 
we find such notices as these in a contemporary historian : 
' 1729-30. — Luxury created necessities, and these drove the 
lower ranks into the most abandoned wickedness. It was 
unsafe to travel or walk in the streets. . . . 1731. — Profligacy 
among the people continued to an amazing degree.' H. 
Walpole writes of 1751 : 'The vices of the lower people were 
increased to a degree of robbery and murder beyond ex- 
ample.'" 1 

The thirty years of peace following 17 14, though materially 
" the most prosperous season that England had ever experi- 
enced," were nevertheless, says Pattison, "one of decay of 
religion, licentiousness of morals, public corruption, profane- 
ness of language, — a day of rebuke and blasphemy." 2 

If such was the condition in sober, moral England, we need 
not say that in France it was far worse. Not to describe the 
manners, let us only hear one or two of the public utterances 
of the time. In 1758 appeared at Paris the essay of Helve- 
tius, De V Esprit, of which it was said by a famous woman 
that it uttered only the secret of all the world. " Self-love or 
interest," says the author, "is the lever of all our mental 
activities. . . . But since all self-love refers essentially only 
to bodily pleasure, it follows that every mental occurrence 
within us has its peculiar source only in the striving after this 

1 Abbey and Overton : The English Church in the \%th Centicry, ii. 44. 

2 M. Pattison: Tendencies of Religious Thought in England, 1 688-1 750. 



6 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

pleasure ; but in saying this we have indicated where the 
principle of all morality is to be sought. It is an absurdity to 
require a man to do the good simply for its own sake. . . . 
Hence if morality would not be wholly fruitless, it must return 
to its empirical basis, and venture to adopt the true principle 
of all' action j namely, sensuous pleasure and pain, or, in other 
words, selfishness as an actual moral principle." 2 

La Mettrie, who died in 1751, declared everything spiritual 
to be a delusion, and physical enjoyment to be the highest 
end of man. He says, — 

" Faith in the existence of a God is as groundless as it is 
fruitless. The world will not be happy till atheism becomes 
universally established. ... In reference to the human soul 
there can be no philosophy but materialism. All the observa- 
tion and experience of the greatest philosophers and physi- 
cians declare this. Soul is nothing but a mere name, which 
has a rational signification only when we understand by it 
that part of our body which thinks. This is the brain. . . . 
Immortality is an absurdity. The soul perishes with the 
body of which it forms a part. With death everything is 
over : la farce est jonee! " 2 

Whether in grim humor or in earnest, it was in perfect 
keeping with the times that Cabanis was said to have dis- 
covered religion and poetry to be the product, some say 
function, of the small intestines. 3 Well might Carlyle say, in 
his Life of Frede?-ick the Great, 4 — 

"A century so opulent in accumulated falsities, — sad opu- 
lence, descending on it by inheritance, always at compound 
interest, and always largely increased by fresh acquirement 
on such immensity of standing capital, — opulent in that bad 
way as never century before was ! Which had no longer the 
consciousness of being false, so false had it grown ; and was 
so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with it to the very bone, 

1 Schwegler: History of Philosophy, p. 235. 

2 Ibid. 239. 

3 See Carlyle's Essay on the Signs of the Times. 

4 Vol. i. p. 11. 



A NEW AGE OF THE CHURCH. J 

that — in fact the measure of the thing was full, and a French 
Revolution had to end it." 

Were not observers of the times justified in thinking that 
the judgment-day of the Church was at hand? 1 Was not 
her sun in heaven darkened? Did not her moon, faith in the 
sun, fail to give its light? Were not her stars, knowledges of 
Divine truth, 2 all falling from their place? Could her au- 
thority and power for good fall lower? Could greater abuses 
possess her citadels, sins more needing condemnation? Was 
not her measure full ? Had not Bengel reason to think that 
God's "mighty judgments" were about to come? 

Let us suppose that Bengel has slept these hundred and 
thirty years, and now we awake him. We take him on the 
Sabbath-day to all the churches in the land. Everywhere, 
in church and Sabbath-school, he hears his beloved Gospel 
read with reverence and charity, and the Commandments 
taught, with the grace of our Lord Jesus. Of predestination, 
of the damnation of infants and the heathen, he happily hears 
not a word. Take him on the week-day through the public 
schools, to the charitable institutions, to the Bible societies, 
where he may see the Gospel in a hundred and fifty lan- 
guages, ready to be sent from pole to pole, from sun to sun. 
Take him to his own home in Germany, and let him meet 
the British Bible-Society agent on his mission there. Let 
him go into the old theological halls and hear the doctors 
reverently carrying on the exegetical study that he himself 
introduced ; patiently and laboriously discovering in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning their Lord ; 3 discarding with 
care such teachings of the later Church as he condemned ; 
with all their might reconciling philosophy with Christianity ; 4 
earnestly seeking to bring to view the Personal Christ as the 

I Kiirtz, referring to the remarkable number of mystical pietists in the first 
half of the iSth century, says: " The utterances which took place in an ecstatic 
state were exhortations to repentance, to prayer, to imitation of Christ, revela- 
tions of the Divine will in regard to the affairs of society, and announcement of 
the approaching judgment of God over the degenerate world and Church." 
2 Swedenborg. 3 Appendix III. * Appendix IV. 



8 SWEDEN BORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

real Divine impersonation ; in short, as Domer says, regenerat- 
ing theology. 1 Let him see with them side by side, almost 
hand in hand, the advanced Catholic theologians, pursuing 
the same studies, with nearly the same results. 2 And, does 
he ask more about the Roman Catholic Church, show him 
the temporal power a suppliant at every Court in Europe, but 
the spiritual power never so great in restraining the evil pas- 
sions of men, in educating and curing souls. And, does he 
ask about Papal, clerical corruptions, tell him that their day is 
past ; they are forgotten. Let him sit with us day by day and 
read the constantly surprising utterances of hopeful faith from 
the pulpit, from the press, 3 from royal lips, from dying states- 
men ; and, overlooking the wide margin of lost ground yet 
to be recovered by the Church, will he not joyfully exclaim 
that he was right ; that the judgment was coming, and is now 
passed; that the " spiritual winter " is over; that "the good 
and pleasant spring weather gains the upper hand, and the 
verdure breaks out from beneath the snow;" 4 that the Day- 
spring from on high is now again visiting His people ? 

So Hagenbach, in his Histoj-y of the Church in the Eighteenth 
and Nineteenth Ce?ituries : — 

"Vehement storms, quite beyond human control, have 
broken through the badly kept enclosure, and have borne off 

1 " Regenerated German theology exercises, in the present century, a very 
powerful influence upon foreign Reformed Churches. Since about 1750, indeed, 
their own theological activity maybe said, in many instances, to have stagnated ; 
they have, therefore, been the more easily affected, though some decayed sub- 
sequently, by the movements of German theology." — Dr. Dorner: History 
of Protestant Theology, ii. 473. 

2 <; In the history of recent German Catholicism ... we again find solid 
ground ; for a more intimate reciprocity exists between the Protestants and 
Catholics in Germany than in France. German science is the beautiful bond, 
uniting those who adhere to different confessional standpoints. . . . Protest- 
ants and Catholics have been nourished as twin-brothers at the same breast of 
German philosophy, though each one has assimilated his nourishment differently. 
The Catholic and the Protestant theology of Germany have passed through the 
same stages of development." — HAGENBAl 11 : Op. cit. ii. 440. 

3 As we write, we read in a duly journal : "American publishers are un- 
willing to print essays or books of professed atheists." 

* Bcngcl's words quoted by Hagenbach. 



WHEN THE JUDGMENT CAME. g 

what had been well nurtured. Volcanoes have sent forth 
their long-restrained fires, and the lava-stream has flowed over 
many a happy field. But there have come into play those 
healing forces which are as little within the grasp of human 
power as the destructive ones. Bright, fruitful sunbeams have 
announced the dawn of a new age, and a Higher Voice than 
that of man has called out of the chaos new creations, whose 
germ could scarcely have been imagined in the preceding 
centuries." x 

So Dr. John Cairns, in his essay on Unbelief in the Eighteenth 
Century : — 

" Not only was the Deistic wave rolled back by the dikes 
opposed to it, but by a higher influence was made to fertilize 
the recovered soil. The beleaguered fortress was not only set 
free, but in its lowest depths was opened a spring of living 
water. . . . Christianity has not been saved to us in Great 
Britain mainly by the arguments of Butler and Sherlock, but 
by the slow yet sure revival that began to spread over the 
whole English-speaking world ; nor was Germany rescued 
from rationalism, in so far as it has been, merely by profes- 
sors and theologians meeting negative criticism, but by the 
return of visible Christianity, and by the calling forth of 
prayer which has power with God. Here, as everywhere, 
faith has brought victory ; and who that contrasts the fortunes 
and prospects of Christianity almost anywhere in the last 
quarter of the nineteenth century, with what they were in the 
eighteenth, can deny that Christianity has not only survived 
but overcome?" 2 

As unanimous as is the testimony to the increasing corrup- 
tion and desolation of the Church up to the middle of the 
last century, so unanimous is the testimony to the amendment 
and revivification during the century now past. And if Ben- 
gel should inquire of us what time the sick man began to 
amend, the answer would be remarkable : it could be no 
other than, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left 
him." 3 The seventh hour with the Jews was the hour past 
1 Vol. ii. p. 2. 2 Pages 87, 191. 3 Johniv. 52. 



IO SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

noon. The decade after the middle of the last century is 
constantly referred to by English and German historians as 
the period of the downfall of Deism. Thus Dr. Dorner : — 

" A further result of the conflicts and disorders in the re- 
gion of politics, morals, and religion was the appearance of 
Deism after the second half of the seventeenth century, and 
its unchecked and triumphant progress till about 1750. . . . 
In 1750 many who desired that the excellence of Christian 
morality should be admitted, owned their obligations to Deism 
for having delivered them from superstition and dogmatism. 
Thus was Deism dreaming of its victory over Christianity. 
. . . But it was just now, when in the public opinion of the 
educated world the victory of Deism seemed in a scientific 
aspect decided, and when being unobstructed by opponents 
it was to begin to develop the supposed fulness and self- 
assurance of Deistic reason, in the place of that Christianity 
which it rejected, that its emptiness became apparent, and it 
incurred the fate of all negative criticism. It had uncon- 
sciously been living upon its adversary, theological science ; 
and when this succumbed, it fell with it." 1 

This testimony of "the greatest living theologian," in his 
History of Protestant Theology, to the common fall, just after 
1750, both of the old "theological science," belonging to the 
scheme of faith alone, and of Deistic reason, is noteworthy. 
So again Leslie Stephen : " Every creed decays ; or certainly 
the creed decayed in this instance, as it became incapable of 
satisfying the instincts of various classes of the population, 
and the perception of its logical defects was the consequence, 
not the cause, of its gradual break-up. . . . Towards the 
middle of the century the decay of the old schools of theology 
was becoming complete. Watts died in 1 748 ; 2 Doddridge 

1 Dr. Dorner: Op. cit. ii. 90. 

2 With the going to sleep of the good man and of the Church at about the 
same hour, it is pleasant to associate his own tender evening prayer: — 

"I lay my body down to sleep, 
Let angels guard my head; 
And thro' the hours of darkness keep 
Their watch around my bed." 



THE DRAGON AND BABYLON FALLEN. I I 

in 1 751; the good Bishop Wilson died in his ninety-third 
year, in 1755." 1 

While thus in Germany and England the doctrines of the 
Protestant Church were engaged in a death struggle with its 
own offspring, Deism, in France Jesuitism, in behalf of Papal 
supremacy, was engaged in a similar struggle with Jansenism, 
a new Calvinistic offshoot still clinging to the mother Church. 
The immediate bone of contention was the Bull Unigenitus, 
which was specially aimed at the Jansenist Testament of 
Father Quesnel. For forty years the contention had gone 
on. It was perceived by both sides to involve the question 
of existence. From 1753 to 1755, Parliament espoused the 
cause of the Jansenists, running the risk of excommunica- 
tion. In 1756 Louis XV. interposed to save the Jesuits, and 
by an act of supreme sovereignty compelled Parliament to 
register an edict in favor of the Bull. Great excitement en- 
sued, and a severe conflict for three years longer, when of a 
sudden the Jesuits found their power with the King mysteri- 
ously gone. The same year, 1759, they were expelled from 
Portugal, in 1764 from France, and in 1773 tne order was 
abolished by Papal decree. Not less plainly than of Protest- 
ant dogma and Protestant Deism, is the breaking point of 
Romish domination seen to have been in the seventh hour 
of yester-century. 

The fever had left the man as dead. There was now no 
longer any Church power existing. Romanism had failed. 
Lutheranism and Calvinism had failed. Deism, or scientific 
religion, had failed. Hume had proved with incontestable 
logic that natural reason was powerless to substantiate a re- 
ligion. The fountain of living waters was forsaken ; cis- 
terns were hewn out, broken cisterns ; they could hold no 
water. 2 The desolation was complete. 3 And yet in honest 
hearts there remained good soil in which the seed of the 
Gospel was even then springing up to bear fruit a hundred- 
fold. Had not their Lord said of John, the apostle of love 

1 Op. cit. i. 3S1, 388. 2 Jeremiah.ii. 13. 3 Appendix V. 



12 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

and good works, " What if I will that he tarry till I come ? " 
though Peter, the apostle of faith in Him, should have grown 
old and been carried where he would not, even unto the 
death ? 1 

The story of the good seed sown by many in many lands, 
notably by Spener and Zinzendorf in Germany, Wesley and 
Whitefield 2 in England and America, is too long for us here 
to tell. Suffice it that the sowing seems to have been that of 
John the Baptist, rather than that of the Son of Man, calling 
forth indeed fruit meet for repentance, but fruit still partaking 
too much of the old root and of human weakness. 

Neither can we tell of the terrible devastation that followed 
in France, whence the good soil of Protestantism had been 
expelled, when infidelity came to cope with the failing power 
of Romanism ; and it was as if seven devils had been brought 
back more wicked than the first. What we have to do is to 
inquire whether our good Bengel's judgment — the judgment 
foretold by our Lord in Matthew, and foreshadowed to John 
in vision — has really taken place, or whether we are to look for 
another such time of desolation, and worse. God forbid the 
latter conclusion ! Possibly it would be like the Jews' await- 
ing their Messiah. We have seen strong indications of a 
crisis, of the turning of the fever, soon after the middle of the 
last century. At that very time, culminating in 1 75 j, 3 Sweden- 
borg tells us that the vision of the judgment, described in the 
Apocalypse, was fulfilled in all particulars, not in this world, 
but in the world of spirits, on those who had been collecting 
there through the long centuries of Christian misrule. 

1 According to Schelling: " The periods of the Church are typified by the 
three principal Apostles, Peter, Paul, and John. Of these periods the first 
two, Catholicism and Protestantism, have passed ; while the third, Johannine 
Christianity, is approaching." — Schwegler : History of Philosophy, p. 390. 

2 We are not unmindful that both the Pietism of Spener and the Moravian- 
ism of Zinzendorf contained elements of weakness, and lost in time their power 
for good ; and that the religion of Wesley, and still more that of Whitefield, con- 
tained a leaven of Calvinism which has to die. Yet they all incited an active 
faith and desire for new life. See Appendix VI. 

3 The year when began the "Seven Years' War;" and, according to Hume, 
"in 1758 the war raged in all quarters of the world." 



THE WITNESS TO BE HEARD. 13 

The thought is new ; but what more reasonable ? Clearly, 
the judgment should not be on a single generation of men. 
The whole idea and description forbid. But it has been as- 
sumed that all these generations which had gone would return 
to the earth to be judged. What more unreasonable? This 
could be only by the assumption again of earthly bodies, and 
the day for such a supposition is gone by. We do not hesi- 
tate to say that such a spiritual fulfilment as Svvedenborg de- 
scribes is the only one that in this age can be accepted. 1 
There will remain then the question of time. What time 
more probable, when we take into view the nearness and the 
connection of the one world with the other, than the time 
when the old life of the Church came to its end, there was 
a pause, and then new life with astonishing power began to 
spring forth ? In short, what time more probable than when 
Bengel felt it must come, and would now believe it did come ? 
Is any time conceivable in the future more probable? It 
will not do to fall back on the old idea of " the end of the 
world." No one of common-sense now believes that this 
world will come to an end within practically conceivable time. 
Every one knows that the Greek words mean " the consum- 
mation of the age." (Matt. xxiv. 3 ; xxviii. 30.) Need we 
look for a more thorough consummation of a Christian age 
than was that of the last century ? 2 

One question remains : how does Swedenborg profess to 
know this ? He says that he was permitted to witness it, the 
eyes of his spirit being opened for the purpose. But is that 
possible ? All things are possible to Him who openeth the 
eyes of the blind. But for what purpose did the Lord grant 
so great a privilege to one man ? Through him to tell it all to 
us, — all about heaven and hell that in this new age we need 
to know ; and most of all to unfold to us in all the Scriptures 
the things concerning Himself, as seen in His own light, — the 

1 What other was the judgment accomplished at our Lord's first coming, 
when He beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven ? 

2 Appendix VII. 



14 SWEDENBORG'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 

light of heaven ; in short, to reveal in His Word the transparent 
stones, the gates, the wall, and the streets of His Holy City, — 
His tabernacle ready to descend to us out of heaven. 

No demonstration of the need of such a revelation, of its 
coincidence with prophecy, of fit attendant circumstances, 
avails for its establishment. We ask with reason, Can any 
good thing come out of Nazareth ? The only thing to do is 
to come and see. To the disciples of John the Baptist, who 
are many in these days, and who come to learn whether this 
is what was to come, the only answer can be, See whether, 
being blind, you will now receive sight ; being lame you will 
walk ; being deaf you will hear ; being dead you will be raised 
up \ being poor you will have the Gospel preached to you. 
If such are the works of the revelation of Divine and heavenly 
truth in the Sacred Scriptures, by the hand of Swedenborg, 
blessed are they who are not offended therein. At the same 
time, admitting the possibility of such revelation, it is most 
natural and proper to inquire as to its medium ; what fitness he 
had for such a mission, and in what manner he performed it. 
It is these inquiries that we are to find answered in the fol- 
lowing pages, bearing in mind, however, that it is a suitable 
man of the age that we are to look to see : not an imaginary 
one of the future, nor a traditional one of the past. When the 
Lord has new things to say to men, He says them through 
one whose ideas and language are those of the men to whom 
He would speak. 1 

1 " Great transitions commonly find their beginnings in a single soul. Their 
source is apparently insignificant, and generally undetected, until the stream of 
history has revealed its power." — Rev. George Matheson : Growth of the 
Spirit of Christianity, vol. i. p. 330. 



CHAPTER II. 

swedenborg's parentage. 

In the middle of the seventeenth century, while our New 
England fathers were clearing land and making new homes 
for themselves in the American wilderness, where they might 
worship God and bring up their children according to their 
own conscience, the grandfather of Emanuel Swedenborg, 
Daniel Isaksson, 1 was rearing his family on his homestead 
called "Sweden," near Fahlun, a hundred and twenty miles 
northwest from Stockholm. 2 Daniel, like his father before him, 
was a miner and mine-owner, " honest, far from worldly pride 
and luxury, and bent upon speaking the truth." For the sake 
of his large family of children, he piously thought, his under- 
takings were prospered. One of twenty-four hard-working 
miners who succeeded in draining a deserted mine, with the 
rest he became wealthy. Far, however, from being made 
proud by his prosperity, Daniel Isaksson would often say 
while at dinner, "Thank you, my children, for this meal, for 
I have dined with you, and not you with me ; God has given 
me food for your sakes." 

Daniel's son Jesper, born in 1653, took the name of Swed- 
berg, from the homestead. The father's piety was continued 
in the son, and was strengthened at an early age by his rescue 
from great peril. A flood caused a small mill-stream in the 
neighborhood to overflow its banks. Jesper and an older 
brother stood near the mill. The brother sprang on a beam 

1 Isaksson, or Isaacsson, was the son of Isaac Nilson, who was the son of Nils 
Ottesson, who was the son of Otto, of Sundborg, an opulent miner. 

2 The facts of this sketch of the Swedberg family are mainly drawn from 
the Swedish Biogrctfhiskt Lexicon, as translated in Tafel's Documents, No. 10. 



1 6 SWEDENBORG'5 PARENTAGE. 

that crossed the stream, and dared Jesper to follow. Not to 
be outdone, he made the attempt, but fell into the stream 
and was swept under the wheel. Catching his feet, the wheel 
stopped, but held him fast. With great exertions he was got 
out, apparently lifeless. No wonder that, after his life was 
brought to him again, he resolved "never to forget, either 
morning or evening, to commit himself to God's keeping, and 
to the protection of the holy angels." It was a marked feature 
of his whole after life to believe in Divine interposition and 
protection. From a child it used to be his greatest delight 
to read the Bible and preach, in his way, to poor people. 
Unfortunate in his early teachers at Upsal, he went at sixteen 
to Lund, where he had good instruction, but developed youth- 
ful conceit. " When I went to Upsal," he says, " I was dressed 
in blue stockings, Swedish leather shoes, and a simple blue 
mantle. I never ventured to go forward in church, but always 
remained near the benches of the common people. But in 
Lund I became as wordly-minded as the rest. I procured 
for myself a long, black wig, — I, too, was dark and tall ; to 
this I added a large, long overcoat, and above all a scarf over 
my shoulders, such as wordly-minded people wore. In my 
own opinion, there was no one equal to me ; I thought all 
should make room for me,' and take off their hats very 
humbly in my presence." 

Fortunately this young pride was early abashed. At the 
age of twenty-one, after a little travelling in Denmark, Jesper 
applied to Magister Brunner, at Upsal, for a theological 
scholarship. "Brunner, astonished at the student dress of 
Lund, which Swedberg had not yet laid aside, looked at him 
sharply, crossed himself, and asked whether he, who was 
dressed in such a worldly manner and in court costume, 
desired to become a minister of the gospel. Swedberg did 
not wait to be asked this question a second time. He went 
home, took off the offensive garb, and purchased a simple 
grayish-black cloak ; and this, he added, was done just at 
the right time." Magister Brunner soon learned to like the 



JESPER SWEDBERG'S YOUTH. \J 

young man, and after two years took him into his own house 
as tutor to his son. "In Brunner's house," says Swedberg, 
"I learned much that was good, both in respect to man- 
ners and to literary acquirements ; but especially I learned 
how to lead a pious, honorable, and serious life ; for he him- 
self was spiritually-minded, both in his conversation and in 
his intercourse with others, in his dress and in his whole 
being." 

After a full course of study and several years' practice in 
preaching in the parish of his preceptor, who died in 1679, 
Swedberg received in 1682 his degree of Magister. In the 
following year he was married ; and in 1684, with the aid of 
his wife's fortune, he travelled in England, where he was deeply 
impressed with the sanctity with which Sunday was observed ; 
and in France, where he was struck with the Catholic care of 
the poor and needy, in seeing " how the wealthier members 
of the community went out in the evening into the streets 
and lanes, to look after the poor, the sick, and those without 
shelter ; how distinguished ladies and countesses, dressed in 
common garments, sought the sick and the helpless, and ex- 
hibited towards them as much mercy as they would towards 
their own blood relations." In Belgium, Holland, and Ger- 
many he visited, as was customary, men distinguished for 
piety and erudition. At Strasburg he became the guest of 
Professor Bebel, and formed a valued intimacy with him and 
with Professor Sebastian Schmidt, then doubtless at work on 
his Latin translation of the Bible, which became the text 
of Swedenborg's exposition. These learned men Swedberg 
thereafter called his "two spiritual fathers." At Frankfort 
he had a desire to visit Spener, the originator of the Pietistic 
movement, but was prevented by Spener's illness. Meeting 
there Ludolphus, and blushing at hearing from him that 
no Swedish grammar had ever been published in Sweden, 
he made it a point later in life to write a grammar, and in 
other ways to make zealous efforts for the purity of the lan- 
guage. At Hamburg he lived some time with the learned 



I 8 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

and pious Edzardus, delighted with his zeal in converting 
the Jews, and with his patriarchal simplicity, as he laid his 
hands upon the heads of his grown-up children and blessed 
them, "just as the patriarch Jacob blessed his sons Ephraim 
and Manasseh, and just as Christ blessed the little children." 
"I am unable," said he, "to describe in what a godly and 
earnest manner this man lived ; may God bless his soul in 
His eternal kingdom ! " Such were the forming influences 
that the young preacher sought and found, while others found 
but sinks of iniquity. In them we must see mirrored his own 
heart's delight. 

Returning home in August, 1685, Swedberg was ordained 
and appointed chaplain to the King's Regiment of Life 
Guards. In the absence of the regiment in Upland, he took 
up his residence at Stockholm, where he often preached as 
royal chaplain, though he did not receive formal appointment 
till 1689. Not satisfied with occasional preaching to his regi- 
ment, he taught the soldiers their catechism. At first question- 
ing they trembled, much more than under fire of the enemy. 
But soon they pressed upon him, and could not hear enough. 
In his zeal he promised to give a catechism to every man of 
the regiment who could read it at the next annual inspection. 
There were then three hundred who could read. The next 
year there were six hundred, and our poor preacher had to beg 
the King's assistance to pay for his catechisms. An uncounted 
handful of ducats was the royal response. The straight- 
forward honesty of Swedberg, frank and blunt to a fault, 
always gained the sovereign ear, wearied with the hypocrisy 
of the Court. Charles XL, in want of public funds, trenched 
severely on the manorial rights of his people. Swedberg, as 
royal chaplain, preached from the text, "Ye hate the good 
and love the evil ; ye pluck off their skin from them and their 
flesh from off their bones, and eat the flesh of my people ; 
and when ye have flayed their skin from off them, ye break 
their bones also in pieces," — making the application plain. 
"Shall the parson speak in this style?" asked an officer of 



SWEDBERG AND CHARLES XI. 1 9 

the King. "Did the parson confirm his sermon by God's 
Word?" asked the King in reply. The complainant could 
not say nay, and the King dismissed him thus royally : " If 
the parson has God's Word, the King has nothing to say 
against it." 

Naturally, in gaining the favor of the King, the plain 
preacher gained the enmity of many at Court, whose sins 
he did not spare, and by whom he was often near losing his 
place and life. But his honest boldness, not without a degree 
of shrewdness, always saved him. Having a daughter born 
while royal chaplain, he was unwilling to have the baptism at 
his house, as was then the fashion, though contrary to the law 
of the Church. Going to the King, he asked whether he should 
have his child baptized according to the fashion of Stockholm, 
or according to the law of the Church. The King could not 
but say, "According to the law of the Church." "Yes, but 
I cannot do so, because in that case I shall get neither a 
priest nor godparents." The King was pleased with the bold 
challenge, and engaged to be present, by his royal marshal, 
as godfather, and the Queen as godmother. The baptism 
took place in church, though not without the exercise of 
royal authority to secure a priest. In short, Charles XI. had 
so much confidence in Swedberg that he would refuse him 
nothing. "Ask of me what you will," said he one day, "and 
you shall have it." "From that day," says Swedberg, "I be- 
came more serious and more earnest in everything I spoke, 
and in everything I represented ; so that I never asked for 
anything either for myself or for my family, not even a half- 
farthing's worth. ... I prayed to God fervently that I might 
not exalt myself in consequence, nor abuse this favor, but that 
I might make use of it for the honor of God's name, for the 
service of His Church, and for the sake of the common wel- 
fare." Thus in Church matters, especially in appointments, 
Swedberg became a frequent adviser to the King. Simple- 
hearted, earnest men found themselves promoted, they knew 
not how ; while many a vain man found himself disappointed. 



20 SWEDEN BORG'S PARENTAGE. 

As a boy, Swedberg had suffered under the hands of an 
ignorant, drunken pedagogue. As soon as he got the ear of 
the King, he informed him of the miserable condition of the 
schools. The King was vexed that no one had told him the 
truth before, and proposed to raise the pay of all the teachers 
in the land. But Swedberg showed him a cheaper and better 
way, — to issue an order for the government of schools, giving 
schoolmasters an honorable position, and after three years' 
good service giving them preference for curacies. Perhaps 
in Swedberg alone Charles made an exception to the distrust 
he acquired in all men. Shortly before his death, he said 
to him, "I have ruled in Sweden three-and-twenty years. 
When I first became King, I trusted everybody ; now I trust 
nobody." To this Swedberg replied, " That is not right. To 
trust everybody is foolish, for there are many wicked and silly 
people." "The world is full of them," interposed Charles. 
"But to trust nobody," continued Swedberg, "is very bad; 
for there are many good, honest, and wise men." "Ah, it is 
now too late," said the King. 1 

From 1690 Swedberg held the appointment of pastor at 
Vingaker. In 1692 he took up his residence among these 
simple country people, with whom he greatly desired to be. 
"The affection and love which existed between the congre- 
gation and myself," he said, "can scarcely be described. 
They sufficiently manifested their good-will towards me by 
pulling down the old dilapidated parsonage, and building in 
its stead a new one, with many comfortable rooms, without any 
expense to myself. I received there so many marks of kind- 
ness and affection, that scarcely a day passed without their 
providing me richly with everything necessary for house-keep- 
ing. At first this pleased me very much, but it afterwards 
fairly oppressed and scared me." That the good people 
saw reason enough for their affection, we may judge from a 
single specimen of their pastor's kindness. To the widow 

1 William White: Emanuel Swedcnborg, — His Life and Writings, 
vol. i. p. 18. 



SWEDBERG AT VINGAKER. 21 

and children of his predecessor he not only allowed the use 
of the parsonage and all its estate for a year, but surrendered 
to them half of the income and paid all their taxes. Later in 
life he said of himself, — "So little was I ever troubled about 
receiving my stipend, that I never sent a reminder to a farmer 
who owed me his tithe, but was satisfied with what he gave of 
his own free-will." 

We cannot help pitying the poor people of Vingaker, as we 
find their pastor compelled the same year, when moving the 
last of his furniture into the new vicarage, to accept first a 
professorship and then the rectorship at the University of 
Upsal. He himself would have been a happy man if he 
could have remained in the quiet seclusion of a country 
pastorate. He begged the King to excuse him, as he had 
been unused to college work for ten years. The King insisted 
and Swedberg complied, saying, " In God's name it cannot 
be helped. I shall do my best, and fly to God for help ; but 
your Majesty must protect my back." "I will do that," said 
the King. Swedberg stretched out his hand, saying, "Will 
your Majesty give me your hand as an assurance?" which 
Charles at once cordially did. 1 

Wherever Swedberg was, he must be a zealous reformer ; 
and so in public stations he was sure to encounter opposition 
from those whose conduct or prejudices he attacked. Some 
years previously, he had been appointed by the King on a 
commission to revise the Swedish Bible. In his zealous way 
he not only pushed forward the revision, but also advanced 
fifty thousand dalers in copper, 2 belonging to his wife and 
children, to import the materials and workmen for printing, the 
King guaranteeing him against loss. The work was fruitless, 
because of the opposition of the clergy. The same fate was 
shared at a more advanced stage by a new hymn and psalm- 
book, on which Swedberg and others bestowed great labor. 

1 Op. cit. i. ii. 

2 The daler in copper was worth about 6H cents, the daler in silver about 
18% cents. Fifty thousand dalers in copper was, then, about 35,250. 



22 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

The book was seized as soon as printed, and never issued. 1 
The ostensible charge against it was of heresy, because the 
Saviour was called in it the "Son of Man," as well as the 
" Son of God." But the real objection was that the clergy 
had not all had a hand in the work. By order of the King, 
Swedberg was repaid twenty thousand dalers ; but he still 
made a loss of thirty thousand, and his printer was ruined. 

" Upsal, 2 where Swedberg now lived, was a pleasant city 
of some five thousand inhabitants, set in a wide undulating 
plain, and made up of low-built houses of wood and stone, 
surrounded with gardens. In the centre of the city stood the 
grand cathedral, esteemed the finest Gothic building in Scan- 
dinavia, where Sweden's kings of old were crowned, and the 
bones of many rested. Built around this ' beautiful house of 
God,' in a spacious square, were the university buildings, two 
houses in which Swedberg owned as professor and rector. 
Here in this fine square our boy Emanuel spent his childhood 
and found his play-ground." 3 At the university, where he 
received one professorship after another, Swedberg had great 
satisfaction and success. " It is incredible and indescribable," 
he says, " what courage, consolation, and freedom are derived 
from a pure and lawful vocation ; and, on the other hand, how 
much those are disheartened who have not this comfort." 
This he said on entering the First Professorship of Theology. 
In 1695 ne was installed as Dean of the Cathedral. 

During his ten years at Upsal he lectured, preached, ex- 
horted, and examined the students incessantly ; how happily, 
we may judge from his own words : — 

" I experienced this grace from God, that there was such 
unity and trust among the teachers that there was never any 
dissension. I lived in the large square, and I can affirm that 

1 Nevertheless, some copies got over to the Swedisli colony in Delaware ; and 
a note is preserved written by Swedberg's son-in-law, Benzelius, May, 1742, 
directing his son to pay to his uncle, Assessor Swedenborg, 256 dalers in cop- 
pa - . " a part of the sum paid by Momme for the hymn-book." 

2 Thirty-nine miles N.N.W. from Stockholm. 

3 Op. cit. i. 13. 



SWEDBERG AT UPSAL. 23 

during these ten years I did not hear ten brawls or disturb- 
ances in the streets. When both my buildings were burned 
down, in the great conflagration after Ascension-day, the stu- 
dents manifested towards me so much kindness, carrying out 
and saving everything except the fixtures, that, thank God ! 
I suffered little harm ; and such pure affection they constantly 
exhibited towards me during the whole of my stay amongst 
them. I can also assert that during the whole of this time 
his Majesty never received an unfavorable report from the 
university, although previously these reports had been very 
unfavorable indeed." 

Of the building of one of the dwellings here mentioned, a 
large stone house in the square, Swedberg tells a pleasant 
story : " I know, and I can testify, for I was always present, 
that not the least work was done, that not a single stone was 
raised, with sighs or a troubled mind ; but all was done cheer- 
fully and gladly. No complaint, no hard or disagreeable word 
was heard, no scoldings and no oaths were uttered." When 
the house was finished, he opened it by inviting and enter- 
taining all the poor of the town, — himself, wife, and children 
waiting upon them, — and concluding the feast with singing, 
prayer, thanksgiving, and mutual blessing. 

The conflagration "after Ascension-day " was sad to Swed- 
berg, on account of the loss to his people, especially that of 
their cathedral. In their behalf he sends a touching petition 
to the young King, Charles XII., through his sister, the 
Princess Uhrica Eleonora. " If only the Lord's own beautiful 
house had been preserved ! Our losses, although they are 
very great, can be repaired." 

The answer to his petition was an appointment as bishop. 
" I had never expected this. It was the fourth royal decree 
I had received. And with a clear conscience I can declare 
before my God, who knows everything, that I never coveted 
this, never opened my mouth, and never stirred a step, still 
less gave a farthing, to obtain it. For I had always been an 
enemy of all importuning and bribery." But Charles XII. had 



24 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

already begun to show the same confidence in Swedberg that 
his father had shown, and never resented^ his frank petitions 
for whatever seemed to him good. 

In 1698 a second tenth-tax on the clergy had been pro- 
posed, to raise money for war purposes. An effort was made 
in the chapter at Upsal to send a remonstrance to the King. 
Swedberg alone dared undertake the commission. He arrived 
where Charles was, on the eve of the Sabbath, and of a mas- 
querade to be held on that day. " Cannot your Honor," said 
he to the clergyman of the place, " preach the masquerade 
out of the heads of the King and his lords? " To the nega- 
tive reply he said, " Well, then, let me preach." He preached, 
and no masquerade was held that day, nor afterwards. He 
then drew up a short petition to the King, and wrote after 
his name, "Genesis xlvii. 22." The King asked his attend- 
ants what it meant. They looked up the passage and read : 
" Only the land of the priests bought he not ; for the priests 
had a portion assigned them by Pharaoh, that they should 
eat it." "Let the clergy alone," said his Majesty, "and let 
them have what they are accustomed to have." 

A few years later, while Charles XII. was in Poland, pre- 
paring to invade Russia, heavy pressure being brought on the 
people to furnish men and material for war, Swedberg wrote 
a vigorous protest to the King against the poor priests' being 
compelled to furnish a dragoon apiece, by which " some have 
had to borrow money at usury, and even to sell their Bibles, 
in order to rig out a soldier." With difficulty he -persuaded 
the chapter at Skara to sign the paper ; but the King received 
it kindly and referred it to the Defence Commission, with 
orders to take the complaint into due consideration, and to 
make it as easy for the clergy as possible. As, however, no 
other chapter had been bold enough to ask relief, the Com- 
mission decided against Swedberg, and even compelled him 
to furnish two dragoons in place of one. Still later, after 
Charles's return to Sweden, we find the Bishop boldly ask- 
ing similar favors, seldom granted ; though the King always 



SWEDBERG AT BRUNSBO. 25 

received him kindly, conversed with him familiarly, invited 
him to his table, and encouraged him in his labois for the 
good of the people. 

Skara, Swedberg's new diocese, lies between Lakes Wenner 
and Wetter, in the southern part of Sweden. Removing, in 
1703, from Upsal to Brunsbo, his seat near Skara, when just 
fifty years old, he made his home there till he died, thirty-two 
years later. The duties of his bishopric he fulfilled with 
characteristic fidelity and vigor. For twenty-six years he 
said he had never neglected to attend public worship, but had 
indefatigably preached from the Gospels and Epistles, had 
held confessions, read with his curates, and himself held the 
examinations in the catechisms, believing more good to be 
done by them than by artistic preaching. "He followed 
and recommended the simple analytical mode of preaching, 
where the sermons flowed without any straining or forcing 
from the text ; for, said he, ' then God recognizes again 
His own Word.' " 

Pietism at this time had spread into Sweden, and was 
branded as heresy by the orthodox. Bishop Swedberg at- 
tended a prayer-meeting of the Pietists, to learn about them 
for himself, and then publicly declared that he could fully 
approve of them, and that it would be very desirable for 
every father of a family to hold similar meetings in his own 
house. Boldly bearing the same testimony in the consistory, 
he caused Pietism to be more leniently dealt with that year 
in the Diet. 

In 1 712 the Bishop's seat at Brunsbo was burned, with 
the barns and outhouses and all their contents. Hardest of 
all for him, all his books and manuscripts were destroyed. 
To Queen 1 Ulrica Eleonora, as after the fire at Upsal, he an- 
nounced his affliction with deep humility. " I acknowledge 
sorrowfully my sins,' ? he said, " which have provoked the wrath 
of God ; I am thankful, however, that I am able to bear it 

1 She was not Queen till after Charles's death, in 1718 ; but about this time 
she assumed to reign in his absence, for which she was reproved on his return. 



26 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

with such good courage." He rejoiced that his little pocket 
Bible was saved, his companion for forty-four years ; and he 
took comfort on finding unharmed in the ashes a copy of his 
exercises in the Catechism, and a copper-plate engraving of 
himself, from which he inferred the Divine favor. 1 

Over the gateway of Brunsbo rebuilt, Swedberg placed the 
words of King David : 

"Therefore now let it please Thee to Bless the 
House of Thy Servant." 

But the poor man had yet another fire to pass through, for 
his purification. In 1 730 Magister Unge wrote to his brother- 
in-law Emanuel, — 

" Most ho7iored and dear brother, — You are probably aware 
that Brunsbo was again reduced to ashes by a vehement con- 
flagration between the 18th and 19th of August, and the Bishop 
came very near being burned himself. The large wooden 
building together with the stone house is destroyed, and 
everything it contained. The silver in the chest, as much as 
was in it, was saved, but everything out of it, for ordinary use, 
was lost. All our dear father's printed works, the newly re- 
printed Catechism, all his manuscripts, with the exception of 
one copy of the book of sermons and one of the biography, 
and his entire remaining library are lying in ashes." 

This last shock was too much for his seventy-seven years, 
and, though he lived and labored five years longer, his firm- 
ness and vigor were failing him. His desire to be still writ- 
ing and printing remained, stimulated by his printer; but 
his family thought he was wasting his strength and money. 

1 For this plate Swedenborg wrote an inscription : — 

Hccc erat in mediis fades illccsa faviilis 

Cum deflagravit, node fluent 'e, domus ; 
Sic quoquc post igncs, Genitor, tuicfamcc, supremos 

Postque rogos, vivct nomen amorque tui. 

"Unharmed mid fiery ashes was this likeness found, when in the passing 
ni»ht the home was burned. So, too, O Father! after the flames and the 
funeral pile, thy good fame shall live and love for thee." 



SWEDBERG'S PRINTING. 



2/ 



1 1 is son-in-law, Magistcr Ungc, writes in 1731 to Emanuel, 
"Moller is now beginning to swindle the Bishop on a new 
account; for he desires to print the collection of sermons 
which was burned. . . . How will this end if he begin 
printing in his poverty? . . . What will this lead to? The 
Bishop plunges himself more and more into debt. He is 
now writing daily with great industry at the two other volumes 
of the collection of sermons, which was burned." In 1728 he 
had himself written to a friend, " If I had all the money 
which I have invested in the printing of books, I would be 
worth now from sixty to seventy thousand dalers in copper." 
Besides various religious works, he wrote and printed books 
on the Swedish language, grammar and lexicons, books for 
schools, a new translation of the Bible and a Swedish Com- 
mentary, Pharos Sacra America Illuminata, and other works. 
Much of his interest in writing and publishing had long been 
in behalf of the Swedish colonial missions, especially the mis- 
sion of Pennsylvania and Delaware. It was by his influence 
with the King that the first missionaries were sent to this 
colony, and their interests looked after until the recognition 
of the independence of the United States. The colony 
elected Swedberg their first bishop, as did also the Swedish 
churches at London and Lisbon, and this appointment was 
confirmed by the King. To their concerns he devoted much 
time and labor, which they repaid with great respect and 
affection. 

In recounting Bishop Swedberg's public labors first, we 
have followed his own example, making these duties always 
of the first importance. But at the same time he was emi- 
nently a family man, being the affectionate husband of three 
successive wives, and the loving father of five sons and four 
daughters, all children of his first wife. Of these, however, 
two sons died in childhood. Like his own father, Swedberg 
esteemed children as a blessing from the Lord, and thought 
that too much could not be done for them. " It is really the 
case," said he, "that you must never grudge expenses, if 



28 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

you desire your children to grow up well." His great desire 
was that his own children should grow up in the fear and love 
of God. With this at heart, he gave them names that he 
trusted would be a help. 

"I am fully convinced," he writes, "that children ought 
to be called such names as will awaken in them, and call to 
their minds, the fear of God and everything that is orderly 
and righteous. . . . The name of my son Emanuel signifies 
' God with us ; ' that he may always remember God's pres- 
ence, and that intimate, holy, and mysterious conjunction 
with our good and gracious God, into which we are brought 
by faith, by which we are conjoined with Him and are in 
Him. And, blessed be the Lord's name ! God has to this 
hour been with him. And may He be further with him, until 
he be eternally united with Him in His kingdom ! Eliezer 
signifies ' God is my help ; ' and he also has been graciously 
and joyfully helped by God. He was a good and pious child, 
and had made good progress, when, in his twenty-fifth year, 
he was called away by a blessed death. The youngest was 
called Jesper only for this reason, that he was born on the 
same day of the year and at the same hour as myself. . . . 
If the name Jesper be written Jisper, [in Hebrew] ' he will 
write,' the use has also followed the name ; for I believe that 
scarcely any one in Sweden has written so much as I have, 
since ten carts could scarcely carry away what I have written 
and printed at my own expense : and yet there is much, yea, 
nearly as much, unprinted. My son Jesper has also the same 
disposition, for he is fond of writing, and writes much. I am 
a Sunday child ; and the mother of my children, my late wife, 
was also a Sunday child, and all my children are Sunday 
children, except Catharina, who was born at Upsal on the 
third day of Easter. I have put my sons to that for which 
God has given them inclination and liking, and have not 
brought up any for the clerical profession ; although many 
parents do so inconsiderately, and in a manner not justi- 
fiable, by which God's Church and likewise the ministerial 



SWEDBERG'S CHILDREN. 2Q 

office suffer not a little, and are brought into contempt. I 
have never had my daughters in Stockholm, where many are 
sent in order to learn fine manners, but where they also learn 
much that is worldly and injurious to the soul." 

Of the mother of Jesper Swedberg we have little knowledge. 
Her name was Anna Bullernaesia, daughter of Magister Petrus 
Bullernaesius, pastor in Svardsjo. She became the wife of 
Swedberg's father, Daniel Isaksson, about 1640. Her son 
Jesper said of her, " My mother was to me all that Monica 
was to Augustine." Of Swedberg's own wife, the mother of 
his children, we know little more. Her name was Sara Behm, 
of good family, the daughter of an Assessor in the College of 
Mines, the same office that was held so long by her son 
Emanuel. Her first husband was Dean of Upsal, and left 
her with wealth that was of great service to her later husband 
and children. She became the wife of Jesper Swedberg in 
1683, when he was simply Magister Swedberg, still preaching 
in the prebend of his deceased friend Brunner. Her first 
child was born during her husband's absence on his travels, 
and she named him Albrecht, for her own father. He died 
in childhood. 1 The next child was Anna, born in 1686, who 
became the wife of Ericus Benzelius. To her Emanuel, the 
next younger, was always sending kindest greetings when 
writing to his brother-in-law. Emanuel was born on the 29th 
of January, 1688, while his father was serving as ordinary 
royal chaplain at Stockholm. After him were born in succes- 
sion Hedwig, Daniel, Eliezer, Catharina, Jesper, and Margar- 
etha. The last-named was born in October, 1695, and the 
good mother, of whom we know all too little, died in June, 
1696, while the rector was building his large stone house at 
Upsal. Emanuel was then not nine years old, and his im- 
pressions of his mother have not come down to us. 

In 1 719 the family of Bishop Swedberg was ennobled by 

1 Albrecht died soon after his mother, in 1696. On his death-bed his father 
asked him what he should do in heaven. "I shall pray for my father and 
my brothers and sisters," was the reply, deeply affecting the father. 



30 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

Queen Ulrica Eleonora, with the name of Swedenborg, and 
his son-in-law Benzelius with the name of Benzelstierna ; after 
which they were, entitled to seats in the Diet. The Bishop 
himself retained the name of Swedberg, and died with it, 
1735, m tne eighty-second year of. his life and the thirty- 
third year of his bishopric. Since the last fire his hand had 
trembled, so that he wrote with difficulty ; and during the last 
year his memory had failed. But his eyes were not dim to 
the day of his death. With wonderful industry and persever- 
ance he had accomplished many undertakings, while others 
not less worthy — such as the Swedish translation of the Bible 
— had failed through the jealousy of others. Previous to 
his last fire he had written his autobiography for each of 
his children. One copy alone, of over a thousand pages, 
was preserved. This is still in existence, but has never been 
printed. The name that he has left behind him is that of 
"a man who, if he had lived a few hundred years earlier, 
might have increased the number of Swedish saints, and 
whose learning, industry, exemplary life, good intentions, and 
zeal for God's glory deserve to be venerated even by a more 
enlightened century." But of his real character it will be 
useful for us to take a closer view, in order to be prepared 
for what we shall discover in the inheritance of his son 
Emanuel. 

There can be no mistake in attributing to Bishop Swedberg 
great energy of character, honesty of purpose, bold frankness 
of expression, hereditary and early-acquired piety, and kind 
love for his fellow-men. His long life was spent in hard, enter- 
prising labor, with no obvious selfish interest, but for the good 
of mankind. And withal he was constantly acknowledging 
God as the source of all blessings, and the permitter of all 
punishment. All the misfortunes that come to him, he con- 
fesses to be deserved recompense for his sins ; for all the good 
he accomplishes he returns thanks to God. His confidence 
in the presence of spirits and angels, as well as in the Provi- 
dence of God, was remarkable, and sometimes bordering on 



SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES. 3 I 

credulity. In his first year at the university "he had such a 
wonderful dream that he did not know whether he ought not 
to call it a revelation. ' No human tongue can pronounce, 
and no angel can describe, what I then saw and heard.' " 
When he first began to preach, he and all in the village heard 
in the church towards evening loud voices, singing hymns. 1 
From that time he felt profound veneration for holy worship, 
convinced that "God's angels are especially present in this 
sacred office." "God preserved me," he says, "during the 
whole of my student life from bad company. My company 
and my greatest delight were God's holy men who wrote the 
Bible, and the many other men who have made themselves 
well-esteemed in God's Church, and whose names are far- 
spread in the learned world. God's angel stood by me and 
said, ' What do you read ? ' I answered, ' I read the Bible, 
Scriver, Lutkeman, John Arndt, Kortholt, Grossgebaur, J. 
Schmidt, and others.' The angel said further, ' Do you un- 
derstand what you read in the Bible ? ' I answered, ' How can 
I understand, when there is no one to explain it to me?' 2 The 
angel then said, ' Procure for yourself Geier, J. and S. Schmidt, 
Dieterich, Tarnow, Gerhardi, and Crell's Biblical Concord- 
ance' I said, 'A part of these books I have; the rest I 
will provide myself with.' The angel further said, 'Blessed 
is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this pro- 
phecy, and keep those things which are written therein. If 
ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.' I sobbed, 
'Oh, grant us, God'" — a stanza of a Swedish hymn. "And 
thus he departed from me, after he had blessed me and I 
had thanked him most humbly." 

It is of great interest to note this readiness on the part of 
Swedberg to receive spiritual instruction ; and this very vision, 
dream, or impression, whichever we regard it, suggests remark- 

1 Swedberg -was fond of music. " By the whispering of the leaves in the 
forest and the noise of mill-wheels in the brook, he was reminded of the 
' heavenly music,' the fundamental tone of which he found struck in the Book 
of Revelation. Every evening, usually, his good friend Dr. Hesselius came, and 
played hymns to him on his violoncello." 2 Acts viii. 30, 31. 



32 SWEDENBORG'S PARENTAGE. 

ably the experience that was to come to his son. It is as if 
heaven were teeming with the instruction the Lord was about 
to give to men, and angels were seeking the mind fitted to 
receive it : nay, more, as if Swedberg himself had some of 
the elements of preparation. And what did he lack? Much, 
we shall find when we bring into comparison the breadth and 
depth of intellectual grasp that was given to his son. Much, 
very much, we shall see when we set beside his self-complacent, 
impulsive spirit the self- abnegated, divine spirit that shone 
through his son after his vastation, in the period of his illumi- 
nation. We need not inquire why this change of spirit might 
not have been granted to the father. Enough, that the time 
was not yet fully come. It is easy to recognize in Bishop 
Swedberg a large measure of the simple Christian goodness, — 
love for the Lord and for doing good works to the neighbor, — ■ 
which was taught by John the Baptist, and again was typified 
by John the Evangelist, and was to remain on earth to receive 
the Lord at His Second Coming. But we cannot fail to see 
also in him, and strongly marked, the fault of the first Christian 
Church from its beginning, — the desire to merit a high place 
in heaven by good deeds. Witness what his biographer, 
himself a rejector of Swedenborg's revelations, calls Swed- 
berg's "sublime words." "At least," said he, after speaking 
of his persecutions by the clergy, " I know that my angel has 
received a command from God to have in readiness a crown, 
which he will place on my head when I depart hence and 
enter into God's kingdom. Meanwhile I shall sit down in 
my honorable place with greater courage, joy, and renown if 
possible than before." 



CHAPTER III. 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. — STUDIES ABROAD. — DAEDALUS. 

Such was the parentage of Emanuel Swedenborg ; but in 
its happiest mood, to judge from the name his father gave 
him, and his reasons for giving it. The words will bear to 
be read again and well pondered. "The name of my son 
Emanuel signifies God-with-us ; that he may always remem- 
ber God's presence, and that intimate, holy, and mysterious 
conjunction with our good and gracious God into which we 
are brought by faith, by which we are conjoined with Him and 
are in Him. And, blessed be the Lord's name ! God has to 
this hour been with him. And may He be further with him, 
until he be eternally united with Him in His kingdom ! " 
God-given wish in the father's heart, that was to be fulfilled 
of God in the son ! It links them together ; the father 
shares the son's labor and grace. 

In what ways the father's heart was gladdened, is partly 
explained in the following reply of Swedenborg to his friend 
Dr. Beyer, who had asked him for some particulars of his 
early life : " From my fourth to my tenth year I was con- 
stantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the 
spiritual experiences of men ; and several times I revealed 
things at which my father and mother wondered, saying that 
angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my 
twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen 
about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the 
love which imparts life is love to the neighbor : also that God 
gives faith to> every one, but that those only receive it who 
practise that love. I knew of no other faith at that time than 

3 



34 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He 
imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and 
various other things that follow. I knew nothing then of that 
learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the 
righteousness of His Son to whomsoever and at what times 
He chooses, even to those who have not repented and have 
not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith, 
it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehen- 
sion." No doubt this description of his early faith mirrors, 
with perhaps an added light of its own, his father's teaching, 
and shows that the simple apostolic faith manifested in a 
good life was the faith the good Bishop preached. 

Strangely enough, we know nothing of the manner of 
Emanuel's early education. Born in the city of Stockholm, 
Jan. 29, 1688, taken to Vingaker at four years of age, and the 
same year to Upsal on his father's removal thither, he must 
have received at Upsal all his schooling. He was fifteen 
years old when his father removed to Brunsbo ; and as his 
sister and playmate Anna, sixteen months older, was married 
the same year and settled at Upsal, we may conclude that it 
was at this time Emanuel became a member of her family ; 
for he must now have well entered upon his academical studies. 
In 1709 he received his degree of doctor of philosophy, and 
with the consent of the Faculty he prints, with an affec- 
tionate dedication to his father, his academical thesis just 
read in the university hall at Upsal. In this thesis we find 
little attempt at display. It was a solid collection of selected 
sentences from Latin and Greek authors, mostly from Seneca, 
with some from Holy Writ, arranged to set forth certain 
moral and religious sentiments, and accompanied with ap- 
posite reflections. So far, we should say, the religious bent 
of the child still rules the young man. 

The same year, the Bishop published a Swedish poetical 
paraphrase of the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, with com- 
ments, and with the same rendered into Latin verse by his 
son Emanuel. This taste and facility for Latin verse, proba- 



GRADUATION. 35 

bly acquired at the university, is not left behind with the 
college halls, but becomes the young man's recreation in the 
interval of severer studies for some years after graduation. 

When his course was finished at the university, he appears 
to have gone to his father's home at Brunsbo. But in July he 
wrote, asking the aid of Benzelius to start him on his travels, 
then an essential part of a young man's education. He asked, 
in particular, letters to some one in an English college, in 
order that he might improve himself in mathematics, or in 
physics and natural history. "As I have always desired," he 
said, " to turn to some practical use, and also to perfect my- 
self more in, the studies which I selected with your advice and 
approval, I thought it advisable to choose a subject early 
which I might elaborate in course of time, and into which I 
might introduce much of what I should notice and read in 
foreign countries. This course I have always pursued hitherto 
in my reading ; and now, at my departure, I propose to my- 
self, as far as concerns mathematics, gradually to gather and 
work up a certain collection, namely, of things discovered and 
to be discovered in mathematics, — or, what is nearly the same 
thing, the progress made in mathematics during the last one 
or two centuries." "Much kind love " he sends to his sister 
Anna. 

Never idle, he adds by the bye that, since leaving Upsal, 
he has acquired the manual art of bookbinding. In March 
of the next year, his travels having been delayed, he writes 
that he has made such progress in music as occasionally to 
take the organist's place at church. 

In 1 710, the necessary royal permission having been ob- 
tained by the solicitation of his father, Emanuel at last set 
out on his travels in pursuit of his education, though not 
without further hindrance on the way. We find in his 
Itinerary, — 

" I travelled to Gottenburg, and thence by ship to London. 
On the way to London I was four times in danger of my life. 
First, from a sand-bank on the English coast in a dense fog, 



36 STUDIES ABROAD. 

when all considered themselves lost, the keel of the vessel 
being within a quarter of a fathom of the bank. Second, from 
the crew of a privateer, who came on board declaring them- 
selves to be French, while we thought they were Danes. 
Third, from an English 'guardship on the following evening, 
which on the strength of a report mistook us in the darkness 
for the privateer, and fired a whole broadside into us, but 
without doing us any serious damage. Fourth, in London 
I was soon after exposed to a still greater danger ; for some 
Swedes, who had approached our ship in a yacht, persuaded 
me to sail with them to town, when all on board had been or- 
dered to remain there for six weeks, the news having already 
spread that the plague had broken out in Sweden. As I did 
not observe the quarantine, an inquiry was made ; yet I was 
saved from the halter, — with the declaration, however, that 
no one who ventured to do this in future would escape his 
doom." 

In October, 1710, he writes to Benzelius, — 
"This island has also men of the greatest experience in 
this [mathematical] science ; but these I have not yet con- 
sulted, because I am not yet sufficiently acquainted with their 
language. I study Newton daily, and I am very anxious to 
see and hear him. I have provided myself with a small stock 
of books for the study of mathematics, and also with a certain 
number of instruments. . . . The magnificent St. Paul's 
Cathedral was finished a few days ago in all its parts. . . . 
The town is distracted by internal dissensions between the 
Anglican and Presbyterian churches ; they are incensed against 
each other with almost deadly hatred. . . . Were you, dear 
brother, to ask me about myself, I should say I know that I 
am alive, but not happy ; for I miss you and my home. . . . 
I not only love you more than my own brothers, but I even 
love and revere you as a father. . . . May God preserve 
you alive, that I may meet you again ! " 

It was in the middle of the reign of Queen Anne. Han- 
del arrived from Italy the same year, to find an atmosphere 



IN LONDON. 37 

in which his oratorio of the Messiah could be conceived and 
born into the world. Pope, a few months younger than Swe- 
denborg, was just issuing his Essay on Criticism. Addison 
and Steele were publishing the Tatter, soon to be followed by 
the Spectator. Dr. Isaac Watts was preaching kindly sermons 
in Mark Lane ; and Sir Christopher Wren was putting the 
finishing touches to the Cathedral of St. Paul. 

In April, 1711, Swedenborg writes from London, delighted 
to execute the commission of Benzelius for the purchase of 
a telescope twenty-four feet in length, a microscope, and sun- 
dry books. "I visit daily," he says, "the best mathematicians 
here in town. I have been with Flamsteed, who is considered 
the best astronomer in England, and who is constantly taking 
observations, which, together with the Paris observations, will 
give us some day a correct theory respecting the motion of 
the moon and of its appulse to the fixed stars. . . . Newton 
has laid a good foundation for correcting the irregularities of 
the moon, in his Principia. . . . You encourage me to go 
on with my studies ; but I think that I ought rather to be dis- 
couraged, as I have such an 'immoderate desire' 1 for them, 
especially for astronomy and mechanics. I also turn my 
lodgings to some use, and change them often. At first I was 
at a watchmaker's, afterwards at a cabinetmaker's, and now 
I am at a mathematical-instrument maker's. From them I 
steal their trades, which some day will be of use to me. I 
have recently computed for my own pleasure several useful 
tables for the latitude of Upsal, and all the solar and lunar 
eclipses which will take place between 171 2 and 1721. . . . 
In undertaking in astronomy to facilitate the calculation of 
eclipses, and of the motion of the moon outside that of the 
syzygies, and also in undertaking to correct the tables so as to 
agree with the new observations, I shall have enough to do. 
. . . Grabe's Septuagint was recently published. . . . He 
was here for some time, but he had to change his lodgings 
every week ; he was so over-run by visitors. ... I have 

1 He uses these English words. 



38 STUDIES ABROAD. 

much to tell about events among the learned, but I have 
neither time nor paper." 

A long letter in January, 1712, answers various questions 
on scientific matters, received from Benzelius and the Literary 
Society of Upsal. Among other things he wanted to send 
home some English globes ; but mounted, they were very dear, 
as well as expensive to transport, and he had tried to procure 
the paper sheets to be set up at home. These the makers 
would not sell, lest they should be copied. Characteristically, 
Swedenborg sets to work learning to engrave on copper, and 
then draws and engraves the plates for a pair of globes of 
ordinary size. He sends at this time a specimen of his engrav- 
ing, and remarks that he has learned so much from his land- 
lord in the art of making brass instruments, that he has already 
made several for his own use, and that if he were in Sweden 
he would not need to apply to any one to make the meridians 
for the globe and its other appurtenances. Of his studies he 
says, — 

" With regard to astronomy I have made such progress 
in it as to have discovered much which I think will be useful 
in its study. Although in the beginning it made my brain 
ache, yet long speculations are now no longer difficult fcr me. 
I examined closely all propositions for finding the terrestrial 
longitude, but could not find a single one ; I have therefore 
originated a methocl by means of the moon, which is unerr- 
ing, and I am certain that it is the best which has yet been 
advanced. In a short time I will inform the Royal Society 
that I have a proposition to make on this subject, stating my 
points. If it is favorably received by these gentlemen, I shall 
publish it here ; if not, in France. I have also discovered 
many new methods for observing the planets, the moon, and 
the stars ; that which concerns the moon and its parallaxes, 
diameter, and inequality, I will publish whenever an oppor- 
tunity arises. I am now busy working my way through algebra 
and the higher geometry, and I intend to make such progress 
in it as to be able, in time, to continue Polhammar's discov- 



LONGITUDE. 39 

eries. . . . When the plates for the globes arrive in Sweden, 
Professor Elfvius will perhaps take care to have them printed 
and made up. I shall send a specimen very soon ; but no 
impression is to be sold." In this same letter he mentions 
valuable English books, and- names all the principal poets as 
well worth reading for the sake of their imagination alone. 
In mild terms he complains of his father's not supplying 
him better with pioney ; and we find the complaint quite 
pardonable when we remember that the father was borrow- 
ing his children's inheritance from their mother for his own 
enterprises, and when we learn that Emanuel had received 
from him but two hundred rixdalers (about two hundred, and 
twenty-five dollars) in sixteen months. He says it is hard to 
live without food or drink. 

Writing again to Benzelius, August, 1712, he repeats his 
confidence in his new method of finding the longitude, which 
Dr. Halley admitted to him orally was the only good method 
that had been proposed. "But," he adds, "as I have not 
met with great encouragement here in England, among this 
civil and proud people, I have laid it aside for some other 
place. When I tell them that I have some project about lon- 
gitude, they treat it as an impossibility ; and so I do not wish 
to discuss it here. ... As my speculations made me for a 
time not so sociable as is serviceable and useful for me, and 
as my spirits are somewhat exhausted, I have taken refuge for 
a short time in the study of poetry, that I might be somewhat 
recreated by it. I intend to gain a little reputation by this 
study, on some occasion or other, during this year, and I hope 
I may have advanced in it as much as may be expected from 
me, — but time and others will perhaps judge of this. Still, 
after a time, I intend to take up mathematics again, although 
at present I am doing nothing in them ; and if I am encour- 
aged, I intend to make more discoveries in them than any one 
else in the present age. But without encouragement this would 
be sheer trouble, and it would be like 11011 profccturis litora 
bubus arare, — ploughing the ground with stubborn steers. 



40 STUDIES ABROAD. 

. . . Within three or four months I hope, with God's help, 
to be in France ; for I greatly desire to understand its fash- 
ionable and useful language. I hope by that time to have, or 
to find there, letters from you to some of your learned cor- 
respondents. . . . Your great kindness and your favor, of 
which I have had so many proofs, make me believe that your 
advice and your letters will induce my father to be so favor- 
able towards me as to send me the funds w^ich are necessary 
for a young man, and which will infuse into me new spirit for 
the prosecution of my studies. Believe me, I desire and 
strive to be an honor to my father's house and yours, much 
more strongly than you yourself can wish and endeavor. . . . 
I would have bought the microscope, if the price had not been 
so much higher than I could venture to pay before receiving 
your orders. This microscope was one which Mr. Marshall 
showed to me especially ; it is quite new, of his own inven- 
tion, and shows the motion in fishes very vividly. There 
was a glass with a candle placed under it, which made the 
thing itself, and the object, much brighter ; so that any 
one could see the blood in the fishes flowing swiftly, like 
small rivulets ; for it flowed in that way, and as rapidly. At 
a watchmaker's I saw a curiosity which I cannot forbear 
mentioning. It was a clock which was still, without any mo- 
tion. On the top of it was a candle, and when this was lighted, 
the clock began to go and to keep its true time ; but as soon 
as the candle was blown out, the motion ceased, and so on. . . . 
He told me that nobody had as yet found out how it could 
be set in motion by the candle. Please remember me kindly 
to sister Anna, my dear sister Hedvig, and also to brother 
Ericus Benzel, the little one, about whose state of health I 
always desire to hear." 

The next letter that has come down to us was dated Paris, 
August, 1 713. Meanwhile Swedenborg had left London and 
made a considerable stay in Holland. "I left Holland," 
he says, " intending to make greater progress in mathematics, 
and also to finish all I had designed in that science. Since 



IN PARIS. 



41 



my arrival here I have been hindered in my work by an illness 
which lasted six weeks, and which interfered with my studies 
and other useful employments ; but I have at last recovered, 
and am beginning to make the acquaintance of the most 
learned men in this place. I have called upon, and made the 
acquaintance of, De La Hire, who is now a great astronomer, 
and who was formerly a well-known geometrician. I have 
also been frequently with Warrignon, who is the greatest 
geometrician and algebraist in this city, and perhaps the 
greatest in Europe. About eight days ago I called upon 
Abbe Bignon, and presented your compliments, on the 
strength of which I was very favorably received by him. I 
submitted to him for examination, and for introduction into 
the Society, three discoveries, two of which were in algebra. 
[The third was his new method of finding longitude.] . . . 
Here in town I avoid conversation with Swedes, and shun all 
those by whom I might be in the least interrupted in my 
studies. What I hear from the learned, I note down at once 
in my journal ; it would be too long to copy it out and to 
communicate it to you. . . . During my stay in Holland I was 
most of the time in Utrecht, where the Diet [Congress 1 ] met, 
and where I was in great favor with Ambassador Palmquist, 
who had me every day at his house ; every day also I had 
discussions on algebra with him. He is a good mathema- 
tician and a great algebraist. ... In Leyden I learned glass- 
grinding [for telescopes], and I have now all the instruments 
and utensils belonging to it. . . . You may rest assured that 
I entertain the greatest friendship and veneration for you ; I 
hope, therefore, that you will not be displeased with me on 
account of my silence, and my delay in writing letters, if you 
hear that I am always intent on my studies, so that sometimes 
I omit more important matters." 

Swedenborg's stay in Paris seems to have been less than a 
year, and here seems to end his aspiration for eminence in 

1 The famous Congress of Ambassadors, by which the Spanish Succession 
was ended and peace secured for a generation. 



42 STUDIES ABROAD. 

pure mathematics. Perhaps he did not find in them the en- 
couragement he hoped. For whatever reason, from this time 
he began to devote his attention to mechanical and practical 
investigations. Going from Paris by way of Hamburg to 
Rostock, in the north of Mecklenburg, he writes from there 
to Benzelius, Sept 8, 171 4, — 

" I am very glad that I have come to a place where I have 
time and leisure to gather up all my works and thoughts, which 
have hitherto been without any order, and are scattered here 
and there upon scraps of paper. I have always been in want 
of a place and time to collect them. I have now commenced 
this labor, and shall soon get it done. I promised my dear 
father to publish an academical thesis, for which I shall select 
some inventions in mechanics which I have at hand. Fur- 
ther, I have the following mechanical inventions either in 
hand or fully written out, namely, — 

" 1. The plan of a certain ship, which, with its men, can 
go under the surface of the sea, wherever it chooses, and 
do great damage to the fleet of the enemy. 

"2. A new plan for a siphon, by which a large quantity 
of water may be raised from any river to a higher locality in 
a short time. 

"3. For lifting weights by the aid of water and this port- 
able siphon, with greater facility than by mechanical powers. 

" 4. For constructing sluices in places where there is no fall 
of water, by means of which entire ships, with their cargoes, 
may be raised to any required height within an hour or two. 

" 5. A machine driven by fire, for throwing out water ; and 
a method of constructing it near forges, where the water has 
no fall, but is tranquil. 

"6. A draw-bridge, which may be closed and opened within 
the gates and walls. 

" 7. New machines for condensing and exhausting air by 
means of water. Also a new pump acting by water and mer- 
cury, without any siphon ; which presents more advantages 
and works more easily than the common pumps. I have also, 
besides these, other new plans for pumps. 



INVENTIONS. 43 

" 8. A new construction of air-guns, thousands of which 
may be discharged in a moment by means of one siphon. 

"9. A universal musical instrument, by means of which one 
who is quite unacquainted with music may execute all kinds 
of airs that are marked on paper by notes. 

" 10. Sciagraphia universalis. The universal art of de- 
lineating shades, or a mechanical method of delineating en- 
gravings of any kind, upon any surface, by means of fire. 

" 11. A water-clock, in which water serves the purpose of 
an index, and in which, by the flow of water, all the movable 
bodies in the heavens are demonstrated, with other curious 
effects. 

"12. A mechanical carriage containing all sorts of works, 
which are set in motion by the movement of the horses. 
Also a flying carriage, or the possibility of remaining sus- 
pended in the air, and of being conveyed through it. 

"13. A method of ascertaining the desires and the affec- 
tions of the minds of men by analysis. 

" 14. New methods of constructing cords and springs, with 
their properties. 

" These are my mechanical inventions which were hereto- 
fore lying scattered on pieces of paper, but nearly all of which 
are now brought into order, so that, when opportunity offers, 
they may be published. To all these there is added an alge- 
braic and a numerical calculation, from which the proportions, 
motion, times, and all the properties which they ought to pos- 
sess are deduced. Moreover, all those things which I have 
in analysis and astronomy require each its own place and its 
own time. Oh, how I wish, my beloved friend and brother, 
that I could submit all these to your own eyes, and to those 
of Professor Elfvius ! But as I cannot show you the actual 
machines, I will at least, in a short time, forward you the 
drawings, with which I am daily occupied. I have now time 
also to bring my poetical efforts into order. They are only 
a kind of fables, like those of Ovid, under cover of which 
those events are treated which have happened in Europe 



44 STUDIES ABROAD. 

within the last fourteen or fifteen years ; so that in this man- 
ner I am allowed to sport with serious things, and to play 
with the heroes and the great men of our country. But 
meanwhile I am affected with a certain sense of shame, when 
I reflect that I have said so much about my plans and ideas, 
and have not yet exhibited anything : my journey and its 
inconveniences have been the cause of this. I have now a 
great desire to return home to Sweden, and to take in hand all 
Polhammar's inventions, make drawings, and furnish descrip- 
tions of them ; and also to test them by physics, mechanics, 
hydrostatics, and hydraulics, and likewise by algebraic calculus. 
I should prefer to publish them in Sweden rather than in any 
other place, and in this manner to make a beginning among 
us of a Society for Learning and Science, for which we have 
such an excellent foundation in Polhammar's inventions. I 
wish mine could serve the same purpose. ... A thousand re- 
membrances to my sister Anna. I hope she is not alarmed at 
the approach of the Russians. 1 I have a great longing to see 
little brother [nephew] Eric again ; perhaps he will be able 
to make a triangle, or to draw one for me, when I give him a 
little ruler." 

Our next date is at Greifswalde, in Pomerania, April, 1715, 
where Swedenborg spent some months on his mathematical 
and mechanical studies, "relieved with poetry;" for there 
he printed his Latin fables, described in the last letter. The 
long dalliance of Charles XII. in Turkey, after his defeat in 
the heart of Russia, had come to an end. Disappointed in 
his hopes of the Sultan's assistance against Peter the Great, 
he had listened to the prayers of his subjects for his return, — 
prayers that Swedenborg expressed in Latin verse : — 

" Carole ! spes Svionum ! Te Musae et Sceptra reposcunt, 
Hac resonant arae, pulpita, templa prece." 2 

From an English paraphrase of this ode, which we find in 

1 Who, in Charles's absence, were advancing to join the Danes and to recover 
lost ground. 

2 Carmina Miscellanea, p. 5. 



RETURN OF CHARLES XII. 



45 



Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson's biography of Swedenborg, credited 
to Francis Barham, we copy the concluding lines : — 

"Ah, soon return, — oh, monarch of our love ! 
Oh, Sun of Sweden, waste not all thy light 
To illume the crescent of the Ottomans I 
Thine absence we bewail, wandering in glooms 
Of midnight sorrow — save that these bright stars 
That lead us on to victory, still console 
Thy people's hearts, and bid them not despair." 

"Charles," says Carlyle, "ended this obstinate torpor at 
last ; broke out of Turkish Bender, or Demotica. With a 
groom or two, through desolate steppes and mountain wilder- 
nesses, through crowded dangerous cities, he rode without 
pause forward, ever forward, in darkest incognito, the inde- 
fatigable man; and finally on Old Hallowmas Eve (1714), 
far in the night, a horseman, with two others still following him, 
travel-splashed, and white with snow, drew bridle at the gate 
of Stralsund, and to the surprise of the Swedish sentinel there 
demanded instant admission to the Governor. The Gover- 
nor, at first a little surly of humor, saw gradually how it was ; 
sprang out of bed and embraced the knees of the snowy man. 
Stralsund in general sprang out of bed, and illuminated itself, 
that same Hallow-Eve ; and, in brief, Charles XII., after five 
years of eclipse, has reappeared upon the stage of things, and 
menaces the world, in his old fashion, from that city." 

From the neighborhood of Stralsund, where, soon after, 
Charles was besieged by the Russians and Danes, Sweden- 
borg escaped just in time, and through the midst of enemies 
arrived home in safety about midsummer. Welcomed to 
Brunsbo, his father's episcopal seat, the Bishop addresses a 
petition in his behalf to the Lord-Lieutenant : — 

"Brunsbo, 12th July, 1715. 

"May it please your Excellency, — My son Emanuel, after five years' 
foreign travel, has at length returned home. I hope he may be found 
available for some Academy. He is accomplished in Oriental lan- 
guages, as well as European, but especially he is an adept in poetry 



46 DAEDALUS. 

and mathematics. ... If there should be an opening at an Academy 
here in Sweden, will your Excellency be so kind as advance him to till 
it ? With God's help he will honor his place. 

"Jesper Swedberg." 

Meanwhile Swedenborg made preparations for his projected 
magazine of scientific discoveries and mechanical inventions. 
On the 9th of August he writes to Benzelius, — 

" Most honored friend and brother, — As I presume you 
have now returned from the Springs to Upsal, I hope that 
this letter may find you in good condition and with renewed 
health, at which I should rejoice more than any one else. I 
received lately a very nice little Latin letter from brother 
Ericulus, at which I was very much pleased and gratified. 
I answered it in some extemporaneous Latin verses, in which 
I wished him every kind of happiness and success, both in 
his studies and in everything else that may be agreeable to 
his parents and to himself. 

" I looked very carefully for the machines which I some 
time ago sent to my father ; they were eight in number, but 
I was unable to discover the place in which he had laid them 
aside. He thinks they have been sent to you, which I hope 
with all my heart ; for it cost me a great amount of work to 
put them on paper, and I shall not have any time during the 
next winter to do this over again. There were, First, three 
drawings and plans for water-pumps, by which a large quan- 
tity of water can be raised in a short time from any sea or 
lake you choose. Second, two machines for raising weights 
by means of water, as easily and quickly as is done by me- 
chanical forces. Third, some kinds of sluices, which can be 
constructed where there is no fall of water, and which will 
raise boats over hills, sand-banks, etc. Fourth, a machine to 
discharge by air ten or eleven thousand shots per hour. All 
these machines are carefully described and calculated alge- 
braically. I had further intended to communicate plans of 
some kinds of vessels and boats, in which persons may go 
under water whenever they choose ; also a machine for build- 



PROJECTS. 47 

ing at pleasure a blast furnace near any still water, where the 
wheel will nevertheless revolve by means of the fire, which 
will put the water in motion ; likewise some kinds of air-guns 
that are loaded in a moment, and discharge sixty or seventy 
shots in succession without any fresh charge. Towards win- 
ter, perhaps, I shall draw and describe these machines. I 
should like to have the opportunity and the means of setting 
one or other of them up and getting it to work. 

" The day after to-morrow I will travel to the Kinnekulle, 1 
to select a spot for a small observatory, where I intend, 
towards winter, to make some observations respecting our 
horizon, and to lay a foundation for those observations by 
which my invention on the longitude of places may be con- 
firmed : perhaps I may then travel in all haste first to Upsal, 
to get some things I need for it. 

" Please let me know whether Professor Upmark has yet 
obtained his appointment. If there is anything in which I 
can be of use to you again, I wish you would inform me of it. 
Will you be so good as to recommend me to any of the pro- 
fessors for any opening that may present itself? The rest I 
shall myself see to. By the next opportunity I will send you 
something which I saw through the press before returning 
home : it is an oration on the King's return, and also some 
fables like those of Ovid, which I have called Camena Borea, 
and have dedicated to Cronhjelm. I am waiting impatiently 
for your oration, about which you said a few words in your 
last letter. Remember me a thousand times to Anna. What- 
ever additional success I may have in my designs, I will first 
communicate to you. I wish you would allow me to do so. 
Meanwhile I live in the hope of being allowed to remain, most 
learned friend and brother, your most obedient brother and 

servant, 

" Eman. Swedberg." 

On the 2 1 st of November, he writes to the same friend 
from Stockholm, — 

1 A fine mountain near Lake Wetter, over nine hundred feet above the sea. 



48 HEDWIG ELEONORA. 

"Most honored friend and brother, — According to promise 
I send these lines in the greatest haste to the post-office, 
thanking you first and foremost for the great kindness shown 
to me at Upsal. My highest wish is to find an opportunity 
by which I can repay it in some way or other. I only came 
here to-day. I could easily have arrived yesterday, had it 
not been for the darkness, and for the uncertainty of finding 
quarters for one in a blue dress. 

" The Queen-dowager is still living ; she is better to-day. 
. . . We have heard both the best and the worst news ; only 
it has here and there been exaggerated and colored. Most 
people know nothing certain about the King's person. Some 
shut him up in Stralsund, and give him no means of escape ; 
others vainly rejoice at his return, and expect him late this 
evening : carriages are in readiness at the Court to go to meet 
him. It is generally believed, however, that he has made his 
escape ; that, after his horse had been shot under him, he 
ran two thousand paces on foot before he could procure 
another charger. This would again redound to his glory, as 
the Dutch say that the Swede would be the best soldier in 
the world, if he knew when to run away. 

" Brother Gustav sends his love, and apologizes for not 
having written. With a hundred thousand kind remem- 
brances to sister Anna, I remain, most honored brother, your 
most faithful brother and friend, 

"Eman. Swedberg." 

The Queen-dowager, Hedwig Eleonora, died three days 
after the date of this letter, in her eightieth year, deeply grieved 
at the unhappy fate of her Sweden, and in great anxiety for 
her grandson, Charles XII. She had survived both her son, 
Charles XL, who died in 1697, and his Queen, Ulrica Eleo- 
nora, who died in 1 693. Gustav was Benzelius's brother. 

Early in December, Emanuel writes again to his friend 
and brother, from Stockholm, — 

" My literary occupations engage me every day. . . . With 



ESCAPE OF CHARLES XII. 49 

regard to the dedication I must obey you, 1 . . . although I 
can flatter myself with only a small prospect of recompense 
from it. . . . But, my dear brother, a single word from you 
to my father about me will be worth more than twenty thou- 
sand remonstrances from me. You can without any com- 
ment inform him of my enterprise, of my zeal in my studies ; 
and that he need not imagine that in future I shall waste my 
time, and, at the same time, his money. ... I will take care 
of the shoes for brother Eric, and we will also take care of the 
dress. But the dyers have their hands full ; the shops here 
are all changed into black chambers, to make the goods 
appear still more dreary, and everything that has been red or 
gay has assumed now the color of mourning. This is the 
reason why my sister's dress cannot be dyed black. . . . 

" The news that are reported here arrived from Stralsund 
this morning, — 

" 1. That the royal government office, with all its employes, 
has embarked for Sweden. There was probably a place left 
in the vessel for the King. 

" 2. That Stralsund has been reduced to ashes, and has 
become its own grave, and that of many officers. . . . 

" Pardon, my dear brother, that I write to you in French. 
But the language in which you think usually suits you best. 
My thoughts at present move in this language ; but whenever 
Cicero shall again engage me, I shall endeavor to address you 
like a Ciceronian." 

The mourning in Stockholm was for the Queen. A fort- 
night after her death, Charles XII. , after boldly defending 
himself in Stralsund, escaped in a small boat on the town's 
surrender, was picked up by a Swedish vessel, and landed in 
Sweden on the 13th of December. 

. The interest that Polhammar took in young Swedberg's 
projected magazine is shown in the following notes : — 

1 Benzelius desired him to dedicate his new magazine, Dcsdalus Hyper- 
boreus, to Charles XII. The Dcedahis was a quaint little pamphlet, in Swed- 
ish, square in form, with copper-plate engravings at the end. 

4 



50 



m:dalus. 



TO EMANUEL SWEDE ERG. 

" Stiernsund, December 7, 1715. 
"Noble and most learned Sir: Most honored friend, — With peculiar joy 
and delight I have heard of your praiseworthy intention to publish, 
under your own care and at your own expense, the interesting and 
useful information in physical mathematics and mechanics which has 
been collected by the Collegium curiosorum at Upsal, and by your- 
self. . . . 

" I read with great pleasure the description of the ear-trumpet ; and 
I see from it that you are a ready mathematician, and well qualified 
for doing this and similar achievements. . . . 
" Your most obedient servant, 

" Christoph Polhammar." 

TO ERICUS benzelius. 

"Stiernsund, December 10, 17 15. 

" Most worthy and most learned Librarian : Most respected friend, — 
I thank you most humbly for your kind letter, which arrived by the 
last post; it was the more welcome, as it was some time since I 
had the pleasure of receiving a letter from you. I find that young 
Swedberg is a ready mathematician, and possesses much aptitude for 
the mechanical sciences ; and, if he continues as he has begun, he will 
in course of time be able to be of greater use to the King and to his 
country in this than in anything else. . . . 

" If I can be of use in any way to Mr. Swedberg, I will be so with the 
greater pleasure, because I may thereby do some good and acquire 
some honor for our country, — for it would be a matter of rejoicing if 
some young and zealous natures could be found, which are not so 
much engrossed and taken up with the present condition of things, as 
to allow themselves to be withdrawn thereby from interesting and at 
the same time useful designs and studies. I read through Mr. Swed- 
berg's first draught of the ear-trumpet; but I did so while engaged 
upon and hindered by other matters, so that I had not time to ex- 
amine it as carefully as I could have wished ; but I have no doubt it 
is correct in all its parts. It would be my greatest delight and pleasure 
if he could confer with me personally about these things; he would- 
be always welcome at my house. With many friendly remembrances, 
most worthy Librarian, I am your most obedient servant, 

"Christoph Polhammar." 

to emanuel swedberg. 

" Stiernsund, December 19, 1715. 
"Noble and most learned Sir: Most ho?tored friend, — The copper- 
plate which you desire is entirely at your service. . . . But if you 



PROFESSOR OF MECHANICS. 



51 



wish to apply yourself diligently to the study of mechanics, I should 
very much like, if you are willing, that you would put up with my 
small accommodation, and more frequently confer orally with me; 
from which, I have no doubt, both of us would derive satisfaction. 
For although I am well aware that the present hard times, and the 
few clays I have still to live, will prevent the execution of my designs, 
I nevertheless experience both pleasure and delight in discoursing 
upon them with one who is interested in them. . . . 

"With many kind remembrances I remain, most learned Sir, your 
most obedient servant, 

"Christopii Poliiammar." 

By the next February Swedenborg sends to Benzelius 
manuscript for the second part of the magazine, with several 
drawings of which he wishes that engravings may be made, 
hoping that the printing may be done and that he may* re- 
ceive a few copies to take with him to Court, then at Ystad. 
Among other things he mentions a project to get a Faculty 
of Mechanics established at the University. The same idea 
is elaborated more fully in another letter, of March 4th, with 
which he sends for the printer a small work on mathematics 
by Polhammar. It appears that in such a professorship 
he would have found at this time all he desired. More 
in joke than in earnest, he proposes that the present Faculty 
should relinquish one seventh of their salaries for the new 
appointment. Probably his serious brother-in-law, himself 
one of the Faculty, did not appreciate the joke ; for about 
the 20th of March Swedenborg writes to him, — 

" I was very glad to hear your opinion and ideas upon my 
proposition. I have never been, and I never will be, so for- 
getful of myself and of my standing at Upsal as to expect 
that the professors would support me to their own prejudice ; 
but I thought that by such a desperate and execrable propo- 
sition I should compel your prudence and your imagination 
to discover something better for me ; the whole of it was con- 
ceived merely as a joke, and this can very easily be mended 
en disa?it la verite. . . . Still it would be very desirable that 
such a Faculty should be established ; and if it is not practi- 



5 2 D/EDALUS. 

cable now, and we have to wait, it could be done with the 
greatest ease by dispensing with some of the professorships 
which are least necessary. . . . But as it would probably 
take from six to ten years before this could be carried out, 
it would be well if meanwhile some other arrangement could 
be made ; and this your prudence will be best able to find 
out." 

Benzelius, on the 2d of April, announces the completion of 
the Dcedalus, part second, and adds, — 

" With regard to the salary of a Professor of Mechanics, I 
know nothing better than that Mr. Polhammar be made an 
ordinary assessor of the College of Commerce ; that you be 
made director in his place ; that the mechanical laboratory be 
removed here to Upsal, and that the director's rank be made 
the same as that of the professors. The rest is in my opinion 
a mere chimera. For the ordinary professor of geometry is 
obliged to lecture on mechanics, and he has also done so. 
Further, when the ordinary professorships were appointed, 
a fine of ten thousand dalers in silver was imposed by his 
Majesty upon any one who desired a change." 

'So this Swedenborg answers immediately : First, that no 
vacancy exists in the College of Commerce. Second, that it 
might happen, with such a change in the directorship, that 
Polhammar would resign his office ; that he himself cannot 
say a word on the subject, lest it seem to be unfriendly ; but 
if by any means the assent of Polhammar should be obtained, 
he would make every exertion to secure the position. In the 
same letter he states that he has completed the manuscript 
for the next number of the Dcedalus, and that he has a little 
poetical work in the press, Ludus Heliconius, a collection of 
Latin poems written in various places. He remains at Brunsbo 
till some opening appears, in order to be nearer at hand to 
advocate his Dcedalus with the King. 

Every letter at this period is loaded with directions about 
the printing, the engraving, etc., of the Dcedalus. Now and 
then occurs a mournful remark about the condition of the 



CONTENTS. 



53 



country, Charles XII. straining every nerve and exhausting 
the life-blood of the nation for his ambitious wars. "It seems 
to me," he writes, "that Sweden is now prostrated, and that 
soon she will be in her last agony, when she will probably kick 
for the last time. Many perhaps wish that the affliction may 
be short, and that we may be released." 

This is written in June, 1716. The letter concludes: 
"Sister Caisa [Catherina] has increased the world and our 
family ; she has had a little daughter, at whose baptism I was 
a witness the day before yesterday. A thousand kind re- 
membrances to sister Anna and little brother Eric." 

Emanuel Swedberg's association with Polhammar grew 
more intimate, with his publication of the latter's inventions 
and scientific speculations, together with his own. On the 
26th of June, 1 7 16, he writes to his brother Benzelius, — 

" I am engaged on the subject which I intend for the last 
number of this year, and which I shall finish this week, namely, 
Polhammar's ideas upon the resistance of mediums, which 
at first were written down in Latin, and which have cost me 
a great deal of labor and mental exertion to reduce into such 
a form as will please the Assessor and the learned ; likewise 
my method of finding the longitude of places, which I warrant 
to be certain and sure, — I must hear what the learned say 
about it." 

On the 4th of September he writes again to the same, — 

" I am very glad that Dcedalus, part iii., has appeared. I 
thank you for having taken so much trouble and care with it : 
when I am present with you, I will thank you still more. I 
am already thinking of the contents of part v. of the Dcedalus. 
I think it will be best for me, first, to put down Assessor 
Polhammar's ingenious tap, with a sufficient mechanical and 
algebraical description ; second, to make an addition to the 
description of his ' Blankstotz ' machine, as this is a work 
which requires greater accuracy, reflection, and considera- 
tion than it has yet received ; third, to leave room for some 
of the eclipses observed by Professor Elfvius, by which the 



54 DAEDALUS. 

longitude of Upsal is also obtained. If you would honor our 
little work with a life of Stiernhjelm, or with something else 
from the history of the learned, I know that thereby our pub- 
lication would become more interesting ; as in this case the 
heavy matter would be relieved by more pleasant subjects. I 
know also that this would gain us the favor and approbation 
of many, as the literary world acknowledges you as by far 
its best member ; I hope, therefore, that this honor will not 
be refused. May God grant you a long life, although I am 
afraid that your many studies will deprive us of this benefit, 
by shortening your days : for I know no one who has more 
consideration for his various studies, and less for himself. All 
the learned and the Muses entreat you to spare yourself, and 
in you the Muses : it is worthy of all praise, indeed, to offer 
up one's self to the Muses, but not on the very altar ; it is 
easy enough to become a premature victim. Pardon this 
admonition, my brother ; your letter to my father is the cause 
of it. I hope that my little learning and my Dcedalus will be 
long under your auspices. I think of inserting in the fourth 
number some Daedalian speculations about a flying machine, 
and to leave room for Dr. Bromell's curiosities, if he be 
pleased to insert them. Assessor Polhammar writes that in 
the following number he wishes to insert such matter as will 
be of use to the public, — such as water and wind machines, 
mills, etc., — which I am very glad of. But let us quit these 
literary topics. Last Thursday night his Majesty travelled 
incognito through Skara and Skarke to Hjo, where he crossed 
over Lake Wetter to Wadstena, to call on the Princess. We had 
the lad with us who was his outrider, and who accompanied 
him from the monastery to Hjo. He reported many amus- 
ing questions and answers, of which I send you a specimen. 
His Majesty asked, 'Whether the King was not expected 
at Hojentorp.' 'Yes,' said the lad, 'I think so.' 'What 
should he do there?' 'That I do not know,' said the lad, 
'but they say he will go hence to Stockholm.' He then said, 
smiling, ' Psha ! to think he would go to Stockholm ; they 



LETTER FROM POLHEM. 



55 



say it is so far off.' . . . A hundred thousand kind remem- 
brances to sister Anna and brother Eric." 

In point of fact, Charles XII. never went to Stockholm 
after his departure in 1700, not choosing to show himself 
again in his capital unless as a victor. In the same month 
Polhem 1 writes to his young friend as follows : — 

"Noble and most respected friend, — With great pleasure I read 
through the fourth number of your Dcedahis, which, as far as I could 
see, is worked up with great industry and understanding. With 
regard to the article on ' Resistance,' I may perhaps mention that 
it seems to depend rather on some additional deductions, which 
might follow hereafter, and which we might meanwhile discuss 
orally, than to need any changes or corrections that I can point 
out; but, if I may be allowed to express candidly my opinion, it 
seems to me that the last correction was somewhat unnecessary. 
With respect to flying by artificial means, there is perhaps the same 
difficulty contained in it as in making a perpetual motion, or gold by 
artificial means , although at first sight it seems as easy to be done 
as it is desirable ; for whatever any one approves strongly, he has 
generally a proportionate desire to carry out. In examining it more 
closely, some difficulty arises ; for nature, as in the present case, is 
opposed to all common machines' preserving their same relations 
when constructed on a large as on a small scale, though all parts be 
made exactly alike and after the same proportions. For instance, 
although some stick or pole may be capable of bearing itself and some 
weight besides, still this does not apply to all sizes, although the same 
proportion may be preserved between the length and thickness ; for 
while the weight increases in a triple ratio, the strength increases only 
in a double ratio. The same rule applies to surfaces, so that at last 
large bodies are incapable of sustaining themselves; and accordingly 
nature itself provides birds with a much lighter and stronger substance 
for their feathers, and also quite different sinews and bones in the 
body itself, which are required for the sake of strength and lightness, 
and which do not exist in any other organisms. Wherefore it is so 
much more difficult to have any success in the air, the same qualities 
being required in this case, and all the materials being wanted, which 
are necessary when a human body is to be carried in a machine. . . . 
Your arrival in Stiernsund will be most agreeable to me ; and if my 

1 About this time Polhammar was ennobled by the King with the name of 
Polhem, by which we shall now call him. But for a time Polhem called himself 
Pollheimer,Taving discovered Polheim to be the ancestral name. 



56 DiEDALUS. 

experience can be of any use to you, I will give it with so much the 
greater pleasure as the fruit of it will be of use to the public and will 
accrue to my own honor. After you enter upon physics, it might be 
useful to follow them up for some time more extensively, especially 
those which concern the causes of natural things ; and also all other 
things necessary and curious, especially those of the household, etc. 
Immediately after I sent off my letter to you, I received yours. My 
wife and children desire to be remembered to you most kindly, and 
they also thank you for your compliments. 

" I remain, most respected Sir, your most dutiful 

"Christoph Pollheimer." 

The last sentence of this letter possesses a pathetic interest 
in view of later developments. In another letter, of the same 
month, Polhem writes, — 

" If the learned wish to have real satisfaction and honor from that 
which they teach others, they ought to have a better understanding of 
many things that are now taught ; for nature is in many things quite 
differently constituted than is thought by Descartes and almost all his 
followers. And this can scarcely be taught better than by daily expe- 
rience in mechanics and an investigation into its principles ; and, 
although what I have gained there is extremely little in comparison 
with what still remains to be done, I nevertheless hope that my prin- 
ciples may pave the way for the rest. For I never approve of any- 
thing which does not apply to all cases and all consequences flowing 
from it ; and whenever there is one single thing opposed to it, I hold 
its fundamental principle to be false. Moreover, it would be no small 
honor for the learned mathematicians if they could point out what 
their principal and most intricate figures are good for in practice, espe- 
cially the geometric curves, etc., which I found useful in mechanics on 
more occasions than I expected while teaching them at Upsal, ignorant 
of their use." 

This eagerness to develop practical, useful results from their 
science, it is pleasant to find, was a marked characteristic of 
Polhem, as well as of Swedenborg himself. A gap of a few 
months in the correspondence of these friends indicates a 
time when they enjoyed each other's company, and when the 
elder presented young Swedberg and his Dcedalus to Charles 
XII., at once the most sagacious, the most bold, and the most 
obstinate of men. The occasion was a brief lull in the war- 
rior monarch's stormy career, when, after reducing*his coun- 



APPOINTED ASSESSOR. 



57 



try to an extremity of wretchedness, he was, Napoleon-like, 
devising projects of improvement. Polhem became now his 
right-hand, and Swedenborg's talents were quickly apprecia- 
ted. In a letter to his brother-in-law, Benzelius, December, 
1 716, he says, — 

" I wrote you a letter from Lund, and should have written 
to you more frequently, had I not been prevented by my 
mechanical and other occupations ; moreover, I had enough 
to attend to in order to accomplish my design. Since his 
Majesty graciously looked at my Dadalus and its plan, he has 
advanced me to the post of an Assessor Extraordinary in the 
College of Mines, yet in such a way that I should for some 
time attend the Councillor of Commerce, Pollheimer [Pol- 
hem). What pleases me most is that his Majesty pronounced 
so favorable and gracious a judgment respecting me, and 
himself defended me against those who thought the worst of 
me ; and that he has since promised me his further favor and 
protection, — of this I have been assured both directly and 
indirectly. But let me tell you all, more in detail : After his 
Majesty had sufficiently inquired as to my character, studies, 
and the like, and as I was so fortunate as to have good refer- 
ences, he offered me three posts and offices to choose from, 
and afterwards gave me the warrant for the rank and post 
of an Assessor Extraordinary. But as my enemies played 
too many intrigues with the above-mentioned warrant, and 
couched it in ambiguous terms, I sent it back to his Majesty 
with some comments, well knowing whom I had to depend 
upon ; when there was immediately granted me a new one, 
and likewise a gracious letter to the College of Mines. My 
opponent had to sit down at the King's own table and write 
this out in duplicate in two forms, of which the King selected 
the best ; so that those who had sought to injure me were 
glad to escape with honor and reputation, — they had so 
nearly burned their fingers. * 

"Dtxdalus has enjoyed the favor of lying these three weeks 
upon his Majesty's table, and has furnished matter for many 



58 DAEDALUS. 

discussions and questions ; it has also been shown by his 
Majesty to many persons. Within a short time I intend to 
send you what is to follow for Dcedalus, part v. ; when per- 
haps Drs. Roberg and Bromell will not refuse to honor it with 
their contributions ; they might possibly derive some profit 
from it. 

" We arrived here at Carlscrona a few days ago, intending 
after three weeks to go to Gottenburg, and afterwards to 
Trollhatta, Lakes Wener and Hjelmar, and Gullspangelf, in 
order to examine sites for sluices and locks, — a plan which 
meets with his Majesty's entire approbation. ... A thousand 
kind remembrances to sister Anna. The kid gloves have 
been purchased." 

From these letters of what we may still call Swedenborg's 
youth, we learn, better than from any description, its exub- 
erance, its energy, its assurance of mathematical power, its 
fertility of invention, and its strong desire to be employed in 
practical works for the good of mankind. Mingled with these 
traits it is pleasant to see the warm, confiding love that over- 
flows to the brother and sister who had cared for and directed 
his budding manhood, and were still to him as father and 
mother. The traits are the natural ones of the time of life. 
What we specially observe with Swedenborg is their vigor and 
power, eminent by inheritance, and conserved in remarkable 
degree by a freedom from all ignoble passions and weak in- 
dulgence, which we can attribute only to the protection that 
came with a deep sense of duty to God and to man. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ASSESSORSHIP. — EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

The appointment of Swedenborg, now twenty-eight years 
old, to an assessorship in the Royal College of Mines, marks 
an era in his life. We have seen him a child at home, a stu- 
dent at the university and among learned men abroad, and 
again at home diligently pursuing his studies, but eagerly 
seeking opportunities to put to practical service the talents of 
which he was conscious, and the learning he had so laboriously 
acquired. Now his opportunity is found, and, as was usual 
at that time, by the recognition and favor of royalty : — 

"Charles, by the grace of God, King of Sweden, Gothia, and 
Wendia, etc. Our especial favor and gracious pleasure, under God 
Almighty, to the true men and servants, to our Council and President, 
as well as Vice-President, and to all the Members of the College of 
Mines. Inasmuch as we have graciously deigned to command that 
Emanuel Swedberg shall be Assessor Extraordinary in the College of 
Mines, although he at the same time is to attend Pollheimer, the Coun- 
cillor of Commerce, and to be of assistance to him in his engineering 
works, and in carrying out his designs, — therefore it is our pleasure 
hereby to let you know this, with our gracious command, and that you 
allow him a seat and voice in the College, whenever he be present, and 
especially whenever any business be brought forward pertaining to 
mechanics. We hereby commend you, especially and graciously, to 
God Almighty. 

" Carolus. 

"Lund, December 18, 1716." 

The College of Mines consisted of a President, always of 
the highest order of nobility, two councillors of mines, and 
some six assessors. Under its charge the whole mining inter- 



60 ASSESSORSHIP. 

est of Sweden was placed. From its records it appears that, 
on April 6, 171 7, Mr. Emanuel Swedberg, appointed by his 
Majesty to be Assessor Extraordinary in the College of Mines, 
being present, — " As a beginning of his introduction, the royal 
decree which had been received was read. Afterwards the 
above-named Assessor, after delivering to the Royal College 
the formulary of the oath signed by himself, took the oath of 
loyalty and of office, with his hand upon the Book, and then 
took the seat belonging to him." 

With this simple, solemn induction into his office, Sweden- 
borg entered upon his labors, to which he gave strict atten- 
tion, unremitted, save on leave of his sovereign in the pursuit 
of his studies, for thirty years ; with what satisfaction to the 
College and to the Government we shall learn, when we find 
him asking permission to retire. The office was a favorable 
one, demanding his best talent and energy, yet not so en- 
grossing as to prevent his pursuing private studies. Except 
in the summer months, when the members of the College 
usually visited the mines, daily meetings were held in Stock- 
holm, at which Swedenborg was punctual in attendance, when 
not in service elsewhere. For a while, however, by the com- 
mand of Charles, he was kept away in assisting Polhem. 
Nor, by the King's wish, did he fail to continue his Dcedalus. 
On the 23d of February, 1717, he writes to Benzelius, — 

" Enclosed I send Dcedalus, part v., and I most humbly 
solicit you to extend to it the kindness that you have shown 
towards the former numbers. I should have finished it long 
ago, but I have been continually on a journey of ever chang- 
ing direction, which scarcely left me an hour's time for such 
work. But as I have now arrived at Stiernsund, I have 
found an opportunity, for a few days, to get this up as well as 
I can. I hope it will win the approval of the Upsal people, 
and especially your own. 

" I have added the Latin to it on the opposite page, 
according to his Majesty's wish, who pointed out to me 
where the Swedish should be and where the Latin. . . t 



SALT-WORKS. 6 1 

" With regard to his [Dr. Roberg's] project for manufac- 
turing salt, his Majesty discussed it and took the opposite 
side ; proving his case by Hungarian wine, which may be 
entirely frozen, and stating that, when he was in Poland, a 
cask of Hungarian wine was so completely frozen that he 
dealt it out in pieces with his sword to the men, although 
there remained a kernel in it, of the very essence of the wine, 
as large as a musket-ball. As his Majesty seemed to be in- 
terested in the manufacture of salt in Sweden, we gathered 
minute information about it in Uddevalla ; and we found that 
in Sweden there are the best opportunities for its manufac- 
ture, as there is abundance of forest and water for promoting 
the work. . . . Should such a work be established, it would 
profit the country more than the whole of its iron manufacture, 
in which a loss is occasionally sustained j but in the case of 
salt there would be a real gain, and the money would remain 
in the country. 

" We hope that our journey hither will in time be of im- 
portance. At Trollhatta, Gullspangelf, and Lake Hjelmar 
also, we found everything feasible, and at less expense than 
had been anticipated. If I do nothing more in the matter, I 
act at least as a stimulus in it. 

"Will you please remember me kindly to little brother 
Eric. I hear that his love for mechanics and drawing con- 
tinues. If he can give the slip to his preceptor, I should like 
to induce him to follow me ; when I would try in every way 
to promote his welfare, to instruct him in mathematics and 
other things, should it be desired. Please remember me also 
a hundred times to sister Anna." 

The project referred to in this and a preceding letter, for 
which Swedenborg and Polhem had visited Trollhatta, was 
to connect the North and the Baltic seas by a canal, thus 
saving the long detour about the southern peninsula and 
the exposure to the hostile Danes, at Elsinore. It was a 
project of Bishop Brask in 1526, discovered by Benzelius, 
and communicated by Swedenborg to Charles XII., who 



62 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

embraced it eagerly, but was prevented by death from its 
accomplishment. 1 

Swedenborg writes on March 24th to the same friend, from 
Stockholm, — 

" The salt-boiling and inland navigation are in a good way ; 
I think that they will obtain the King's approbation. I am 
now sending down to Deputy-Councillor Fahlstrom the pro- 
ject about the observatory at Upsal. I am inclined to think 
that his Majesty will approve of it, and also that he will call 
upon Upsal to hand in a proposition about the institution 
of a Faculty." 

Polhem writes acutely, March 27th, — 

"Respected Assessor, — I avail myself of the present occasion to 
send my daughters Maja and Mrensa [Emerentia] to Stockholm, 
and at the same time to forward you the first draught of the con- 
tinuation of my paper on physics, which I have not taken time to read 
over since, and there are therefore more particulars still to be no- 
ticed. ... It is very appropriate that Stiernhjelm's life, his intelli- 
gence and learning, should be described ; and it would do no harm 
if some verses were placed over it in honor of Sweden, and of him 
about whom the paper is written. However short and cold the days 
may be which the sun grants to Sweden in winter, so much the 
longer and warmer are they in summer; and southerners have in this 
respect nothing to boast of over us, when the year is over. In like 
manner, although Sweden produces people of the dullest kind, who 
are ridiculed by other nations, there are, on the other hand, brought 
up in it such penetrating and lofty minds as surpass those of other 
countries, and are able to teach them ; yet when you take the aver- 
age of the two extremes, they may not do more than others." 

On the 26th of June, 171 7, Swedenborg writes to Ben- 
zelius, — 

" Five weeks ago, after I came here to Lund, I presented 
to his Majesty Dczdalus, part v., and he was pleased, yea, 
more than pleased with it. . . . The salt-boiling will go on, 
his Majesty having resolved to grant great and important pri- 
vileges, which will perhaps induce many zealous persons to 
venture their means in the affair; and should there be a 

1 Tafel, i. 275. Rumors are current of a revival of the project. 



NEW MODE OF COUNTING. 63 

scarcity of shareholders .in other places, Lund with its attor- 
neys may perhaps do the most. The establishment of canal 
locks between Gottenburg and Wenersborg is also in good 
trim. I have besides been busy with a new method of count- 
ing, which his Majesty has hit upon ; namely, to let the num- 
eration reach 64 before it turns, in the same way as the ordi- 
nary method of counting turns at 10. He has himself devised 
new characters, new names, etc., for this purpose ; and has 
written and changed a number of points with his own hand. 
This paper, which I have in my possession, will in time de- 
serve a distinguished place in a library. This method of 
counting is difficult in multiplication, but it is useful and 
speedy in division, in the extraction of the square, cube, and 
biquadratic roots, — all of which terminate in 64, — as well as 
in the solution of smaller numbers. His Majesty has great 
penetration." 

Half a year later, December, 171 7, Swedenborg presents 
to his brother, Benzelius, another and better-known side of 
" his Majesty's " character, showing that even his favorite 
mathematicians and mechanicians were at the mercy of his 
whims. He writes, — 

" I hear that little brother Eric has gone to Upsal and 
caught the small-pox. I should be very sorry if any harm 
befel him in consequence. I long to hear of his recovery. 
His vivacity is very much against his bearing it long \ but it 
rests with God to change it. 

" I am writing to M. Vassenius, which I could not do 
before, as I did not know where he was. I should like to be 
able to do something in the matter of the stipendium duplex, 
and of anything else in his favor ; but the difficulty is simply 
this : If one presents to his Majesty anything which does not 
properly belong to his office, he knows what answer he will 
get. Again, if any one were to be asked to present it, it 
would have to be Secretary Cederholm, who will do nothing. 
The Councillor of Commerce [Polhem] has applied for 
twenty things, and has obtained a decision only in the matter 



64 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

of the salt-works. I myself have not spoken to his Majesty 
more than twice, and then it was only some nonsense about 
mathematics, riddles in algebra, etc. On account of the 
Councillor of Commerce, I have tried very earnestly not to 
obtain this grace more frequently. Should I anywhere else 
have occasion to speak to him alone, I will try to accomplish 
something." 

On the 7th of January he writes from Brunsbo, — 
" Enclosed I send you something which I found time to 
write at Brunsbo j it is a new method of calculation, of which 
I received a hint while I was at Lund. His Majesty is much 
interested in this kind of calculation, and has himself prepared 
characters, names, and rules for a method ; but in it there 
was no turn until 64. I have two sheets which he himself 
wrote on this subject, which shall belong to the Library. The 
present method goes to 8 only, before it turns ; and could it 
be introduced into use, it would be of great practical advan- 
tage. The example proves this. . . . My dear father is still 
at Lund. He is about to argue his ' Shibboleth,' and has 
perhaps done so already. . . . You will please excuse my 
haste : I have some commissions to attend to during the Fair. 
Meanwhile I wish you a happy New Year, and much pleasure 
and joy. With my remembrances to sister Anna and little 
brother Eric, I remain, honored and dear brother, your most 
faithful brother, 

"Eman. Swedberg." 

A week later, from the same place, he writes, — 

"Most ho?iored and dear brother, — As I had some leisure 
hours here at Brunsbo, I have prepared an Art of the 
Rules, or Algebra, in Swedish ; and, although I had no book 
or other help at hand, I have tried to make it as easy and 
concise as possible : it will probably not exceed six sheets 
in print. I was induced to write it chiefly because so many 
in Lund and Stockholm have begun to study algebra, and 
because I have been requested by others to prepare it. I 



PROFESSORSHIP DECLINED. 



C5 



hope that it will be of service to the public. . . . Our dear 
father has not yet returned home, but he is expected to-day 
or to-morrow, when we shall hear much news. He seems to 
have been well received by his Majesty ; he dined with him 
three times, and preached before him on the second Sunday 
in Advent ; he also conversed with him many times." 
Again, a week later, he writes, Jan. 21, 17 18, — 
"By the last post I had the honor to receive your letter, 
with the intelligence of the death of Professor Elfvius. 1 God 
grant him peace and rest ! I think it was his own wish. In 
the advice which you so kindly gave me about becoming his 
successor, I recognize most gratefully your kindness and good- 
will ; and as I know that no one of my relations has ever 
entertained such kind wishes towards me as you, I recognize 
the same good-will in the present matter. The arguments 
you adduce are very good, yet on the other side I can adduce 
some very strong arguments, as for instance : First, I have 
already an honorable post ; second, in this post I can be of 
use to my country, and, indeed, of more practical use than 
in the other position ; third, I thus decline a Faculty which 
does not agree with my tastes and my turn of mind, by both 
of which I am led to mechanics, and will be in future to 
chemistry, — and our College is noted for having assessors 
who know very little on these subjects. For this reason I will 
endeavor to supply this deficiency, and I hope that my labors 
in this direction will be as profitable to them, as their own may 
be in another ; I trust also that no one will judge me un- 
worthy of my office. With regard to envy, this is more a mat- 
ter of laughter to me than of apprehension ; for I have always 
striven to cause myself to be envied, and in the future I shall 
perhaps become a still greater object of envy. The only object 
which would induce me to follow your suggestion, would be 
that I might be with you and enjoy one or two years' leisure 
to put my thoughts on paper, which I have some difficulty in 
doing now ; but I will certainly never apply to the consistory 

: Professor of Astronomy at Upsal. 
5 



66 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

and the rector in writing, for did they not accede to my ap- 
plication I should be under the disadvantage of having sought 
to be relieved of an honorable post, from which I shall in time 
derive more profit than simply the promise of being allowed 
to enjoy it to the end of my life : moreover, I should be 
under the disadvantage of having declared myself unfit for 
my present position. Should the Academy consider me 
qualified for their position, they may take all necessary steps 
without my application ; but if they do not consider me quali- 
fied, I am indifferent about it. I thank you a thousand times 
for your well-intended kindness ; I shall never be happier 
than in being near you, so as to have more frequently the op- 
portunity of doing what is pleasant to you. . . . [Speaking 
of his mathematical discoveries,] I wish I had some more of 
these novelties, ay, a novelty in literary matters for every day 
in the year, so that the world might find pleasure in them. 
There is never a lack of those who will plod on in the old 
beaten track, while there are scarcely six or ten in a whole 
century who are able to generate novelties which are based 
upon argument and reason. ... As the King has already 
approved of the calculation based on the number 8, you must 
be so good as not to create any difficulties that may delay its 
publication. I have five little treatises which I desire to lay 
before my friends ; one, which I have finished to-day, is on 
the round particles, in which Dr. Roberg will probably be in- 
terested, for he is well skilled in all that concerns these least 
things, and is delighted with such subjects." 

In these liberal extracts from Swedenborg's letters, of which 
we have more at this period of his life than at any other, we 
copy without reserve whatever seems to throw any light on 
his character and on the nature of his pursuits. The entire 
collection is to be found in Tafel's Doawients, in which it 
makes one hundred and seventy octavo pages. During the 
publication of the Dczdalus, from 1716 to 171 8, Swedenborg 
published little else. A small tract in Swedish on the tin- 
ware of Stiernsund, 1 7 1 7, is attributed to him ; and it is prob- 



THEORY OF ROUND PARTICLES. 6j 

able that his Algebra, a i6mo. of 135 pages, was printed in 
1 718. Of works of this period in manuscript there are still 
preserved an essay on the " Importance of Instituting an 
Astronomical Observatory in Sweden j " one on the " Causes 
of Things ;" "A new Theory concerning the End of the 
Earth," in which he holds that the earth revolves in a resist- 
ing medium and is gradually retarding its motion and ap- 
proaching the sun j a project for " Assisting Commerce and 
Manufactures," by controlling the export of Swedish iron and 
copper j a " Memorial on the Establishment of Salt-works in 
Sweden ; " an essay on "The Nature of Fire and Colors ; " 
and some discussions of higher mathematics, involving the 
Differential and Integral Calculus. Of the direction of his 
studies at this time, the following letter to Benzelius, written 
30th January, 1718, gives further information : — 

" I send you something new in physics, on the particles of 
air and water, proving them to be round, which may militate 
against the philosophy of many ; but as I base my theory 
upon experience and geometry, I do not expect that any 
one can refute it by arguments. Preconceived ideas received 
from Descartes and others will be the greatest obstacle to it, 
and will cause objections. Dr. Roberg, who in everything that 
is minute and subtile is himself subtile, is best able to judge 
respecting it : if you would therefore be kind enough to leave 
this with him, I should like to hear his opinion. If Professor 
Valerius would lay aside his own and his father's Cartesianism, 
his opinion would also be valuable to me. I have materials 
enough on this subject to fill a large book, as is done by the 
learned with their speculations abroad ; but as we have no 
appliances here for such large publications, I must cut my 
coat according to the cloth, and introduce only the most 
general views. The use of this seems to me to enable us to 
investigate more thoroughly the nature of air and water in all 
its parts : for if the true shape of the particles is once discov- 
ered, we obtain with it all the properties which belong to such 
a shape. I hope that this rests on a solid foundation. In 



68 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

future I should not wish to publish anything which has not 
better ground to rest upon than the former things in the 
Dcedalus. . . . 

" With respect to the professorship at Upsal I expressed 
my thoughts to you from Brunsbo, and I hope you will receive 
them kindly. I hope I shall be able to be as useful in the 
post which has been intrusted to me, and also to secure to 
myself as many advantages ; my present position being only 
a step to a higher one, while at Upsal I should have nothing- 
more to expect. Moreover, I do not believe that the King 
would like me to give up my present position. With regard 
to the College, I will try most diligently to make myself at 
home in mechanics, physics, and chemistry ; and at all events 
to lay a proper foundation for everything, when I hope no one 
will have any longer a desire to charge me with having entered 
the College as one entirely unworthy : and yet I have no de- 
sire, either, to be called legis consultissimns" 

In February he writes, — 

" I received to-day a letter from the Councillor of Com- 
merce at Wenersborg, in which he presses and urges me to 
journey thither. He has now received the order that the 
locks are to be built, and that the navigation between the 
Baltic and North Sea is to be through the lakes of Wener 
and Wetter to Norkoping, at his Majesty's private expense. 
There is considerable work ahead, but I shall have to stay 
here for two weeks yet. Then, with your leave, I will come 
as fast as possible to Upsal, in order to see through the press 
what I have in hand. The Councillor of Commerce writes 
that the King wonders and expresses dissatisfaction at my 
not going on with the Dcedalus as before. I should like very 
much to take something down with me which will please the 
King. Let nothing interfere with my new method of calcu- 
lation ; it may be very useful for those who desire to use it. 
I take the whole responsibility upon myself." 

Too late : the advantages of 8 as a base of calculation are 
obvious, and it is a matter of constantly repeated regret that it 



BUILDING LOCKS. 69 

is now, as indeed it was before Swedenborg's time, too late to 
make the change. 

About this time he complains of a "rise in the postage," as 
threatened among other exactions of Charles XII. Another 
hardship, complained of at the same time, was the price 
appointed for relays furnished to travellers by the Swedish 
peasants, in order to force them to take the regular posting 
vehicles. He says, — 

"The first thing I will do will be to procure myself a 
horse and sledge, and for each journey a barrel of oats in 
the sledge ; and the first one I meet, I will ask for a share of 
his provisions. I have not the least desire to pay twenty- 
seven dalers in copper for a sledge and driver to the next inn 
on the road to Upsal, two Swedish miles." 

These complaints prepare us for a delay, and the next 
letter is from Wenersborg, the following June : — 

"Most honored a?id dear brother, — Some time has elapsed 
since I wrote to you. The delay is in proportion to the 
distance and to the rise in postage ; yet I hope that your 
confidence remains as before. 

" We are now daily occupied in bringing the first lock to 
completion, which cannot, however, be done before Michael- 
mas. The expenses are small beyond all expectation, because 
the whole work is of timber. Yet it is built so as to last a 
long time, and any part which gives way can be repaired with- 
out renewing the whole structure. I am trying to prevail on 
the- Councillor of Commerce to appoint one or two persons 
to superintend the work ; and as I think Messrs. Vassenius 
and Hasselbom would like such an appointment, I have pro- 
posed them. . . . 

" It seems to me there is but little reward for the trouble 
of advancing the cause of science, — partly on account of the 
lack of funds, which prevents our going as far into it as we 
ought ; and partly also on account of the jealousy which is 
excited against those who busy themselves more than other 
persons with a given subject. Whenever a country leans 



;o 



EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XIL 



towards barbarism, it is vain for one or two persons to try to 
keep it upright. 

"Baron Gortz has passed twice through this place, and 
inspected the work at the locks, over which he is chief. . . . 
His Majesty examined also Trollhatta, and I had the favor of 
conversing much with him. I did not offer him my " Art of 
the Rules" and my "Attempt to find the Longitude," further 
than by leaving them upon his table, when he sat and perused 
them for a considerable time. Many wonderful tales are re- 
ported about us in the neighborhood. Among other things 
they say that we stopped up the Trollhatta Falls at the mo- 
ment the King was there. Such unbounded confidence 
have they in art." 

Again from Wenersborg, September 14th, he writes, — 

" Your welcome letter reached me in Stromstadt ; it had 
come after me to Wenersborg and Stromstadt, and therefore 
I could not answer it sooner. I have been twice at Strom- 
stadt, and I shall probably have to go there soon again. 

" I found his Majesty most gracious towards me, much 
more so than I had any reason to expect, which I regard as 
a good omen. Count Morner also showed me all the favor 
that I could wish. 

"Every day I had some mathematical matters for his 
Majesty, who deigned to be pleased with all of them. When 
the eclipse took place, I took his Majesty out to see it, 
and talked much to him about it. This, however, is a mere 
beginning. I hope in time to be able to do something in this 
quarter for the advancement of science ; but I do not wish 
to bring anything forward now, except what is of immediate 
use. His Majesty found considerable fault with me for not 
having continued my Daedalus ; but I pleaded want of means, 
of which he does not like to hear. I expect some assistance 
for it very soon. 

" With respect to brother Esberg [a nephew of Benzelius], 
I will see that he gets some employment at the locks ; but 
nothing can be done before next spring. If he meanwhile 



. 



POLHEM'S DAUGHTERS. 



71 



studies mathematics well, and begins to make models, it will 
be perhaps of use to him. I wish very much that little brother 
Ericus was grown up. I believe that next spring, if every- 
thing remain as it is, I shall begin the building of a lock my- 
self, and shall have my own command ; in which case I hope 
to be of service to one or the other. I receive only three 
dalers a day at present at the canal works \ but I hope soon 
to receive more. 

" Polhem's eldest daughter is betrothed to a chamberlain 
of the King, of the name of Manderstrom. I wonder what 
people will say about this, inasmuch as she was engaged [by 
her father] to me. His second daughter is in my opinion 
much prettier. 

" How is Professor Valerius ? I should be very glad to 
hear of his health and good condition. Remember me to 
sister Anna." 

Polhem's second daughter, Emerentia, was young at this 
time, not quite sixteen, and did not, it would appear, recipro- 
cate Swedenborg's tender feeling. Her father, it is said, gave 
him a written claim upon her in the future, in the hope that 
she would become more yielding, and this contract she was 
obliged to sign. She fretted about it, however, so much 
every day that her brother was moved with compassion and 
purloined the contract from Swedenborg, whose only com- 
fort consisted in daily perusing it, and who therefore quickly 
missed his treasure. His sorrow at his loss was so evident 
that her father insisted on knowing the cause ; and on learn- 
ing it, was willing by an exercise of his authority to have the lost 
document restored. But, when Swedenborg himself saw her 
grief, he voluntarily relinquished his right, and left the house, 
it is said, with a solemn vow never to fix his affections on any 
woman again. However this may have been, it is certain 
that he never married, and that he never forgot his first love. 
She was married a few years after to Riickerskold, Councillor 
of the Court of Appeals, to whom she bore nine children, 
and died in 1 760. Late in Swedenborg's life some of her 



72 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

daughters used to visit him, and he told them that he could 
then converse with their mother whenever he desired. 1 

What called Swedenborg to Stromstadt, he does not ex- 
plain. But from other sources we learn that he was engaged 
in superintending the transportation of two galleys, five large 
boats, and a sloop, seventeen miles overland, from Stromstadt 
to Iderfjol, for the aid of Charles XII. in his operations against 
Frederickshall. Baron Sandels, in his eulogy, gives the credit 
of the feat to Swedenborg, and in fact we have seen that, 
several years before, he had drawn out plans for such trans- 
portation; but we do not know whether the plan adopted 
was his or Polhem's. 

In October of the same year, 1718, he writes again from 
his father's home at Brunsbo, — 

"Most honored and dear brother, — I am just starting for 
Carlsgraf, after having been here about three weeks. Mean- 
while I have seen Dcedahis, part vi., through the press. It 
contains the following articles: 1. Directions for Point- 
ing Mortars, by C. Polhem ; 2. An Easy Way of Counting 
Balls which are Stored in the Shape of a Triangle, by Em. 

S ; 3. Useful Directions in Ship-Building. 4. A Proof 

that our Vital Nature consists of Small Tremulations, — with 
a great Number of Experiments; 5. Respecting a Curve, 
the Secant of which forms Right Angles with it. I have sent 
this, the figures and letter-press, to his Majesty. As soon as 
I have an opportunity, I will send it over to you. 

" By the first opportunity I will also send it to Vice-Presi- 
dent Hjarne, with a courteous, but at the same time decided 
letter, to stop his impertinences, because it is quite possible 
that some one may show up the puerilities and shortcom- 
ings in scientific matters which he himself has had the dar- 
ing to publish. I will send you a copy of this letter some 
other time. 

1 Not, however, as we understand, with the old interest. There is a tradition 
among Swedenborg's friends in London, that in later life he spoke of the excel- 
lent Countess Gyllenborg as the one awaiting him in the other world. 



FAMILY MATTERS. 



73 



" Our dear father has made us a present of his share in the 
mining property. I wish we may succeed in arriving at an 
equitable arrangement. Brother Lars is somewhat unpleasant 
towards me. It would be well for him not to continue in 
this course ; for it does not seem proper in a relative that he 
should be more on the side of Ahlgren than on that of his 
brother-in-law. Among all my brothers and relatives there is 
not one who has entertained a kind feeling towards me, ex- 
cept yourself; and in this I was confirmed by a letter which 
my brother wrote to my father about my journey abroad. If 
I can in any way show a due sense of gratitude, I will always 
do so. Brother Unge does not hold his hands away from 
any one ; at least he has estranged my dear father's and my 
dear mother's affections for the last four years. Still, this 
will probably not be to his advantage. 

" His Majesty will probably go to Wenersborg at the close 
of the month, to inspect the army. I will see if I cannot get 
leave to follow to Norway. If I can be of any service there 
to my brothers and sisters, it will be the greatest pleasure to 
me." 

This letter hints at several matters which bespeak our atten- 
tion, — the unfortunate King's expedition against Norway, in 
which he is about to lose his life ; Swedenborg's position in 
his own family, which is plainly not as pleasant as could be 
wished ; and his patrimony, the means of his support. 

Vice-President Hjarne, here and elsewhere referred to with 
some irritation, himself an eminent man of science, seems to 
have been slow to recognize Swedenborg's merit and fitness 
for a place in the College of Mines, of which r^e was Vice- 
President. Perhaps he was jealous of his being a favorite 
with the King, and perhaps he visited on him a share of his 
quarrel with Bishop Swedberg about his " Shibboleth," — an 
essay on the use of the Swedish language. At a little later 
period we find a better understanding between the men of 
science. 

At this time Swedenborg had but one brother living, Jes- 



74 EMPLOYMENT BY CHARLES XII. 

per, a young man of twenty-four years, then studying naviga- 
tion in England, and afterwards schoolmaster for five years in 
" New Sweden," America. It was, then, of his brothers-in- 
law, — the husbands of his sisters Hedwig (Lars Benzelius 1 ), 
Catharina (the Dean Unge), and possibly of Margaretha 
(Captain Lunstedt), — that Swedenborg complained, as un- 
friendly. Of the cavalry officer we know almost nothing. Of 
Lars Benzelius, though brother of Swedenborg's special friend, 
Ericus Benzelius, Anna's honored husband, we hear no good. 
To Swedenborg, at least, he seems to have been hostile 
always, though at a later period he sat with him in the College 
of Mines. The Dean Unge was a favorite curate with Bishop 
Swedberg, who had a high regard for him ; and some years 
later we find him on friendly terms with Swedenborg himself. 
It seems probable that the unfriendliness at this time in the 
family arose, as so frequently happens, from disagreement 
about the management of their property. We have seen that 
Bishop Swedberg's fortune was mostly that of his first wife, 
the mother of all his children ; and that, using this freely in 
his own projects, he found it difficult to supply Emanuel with 
what was necessary in his studies abroad. It is not improb- 
able that some of the other members of the family found 
trouble in securing their share at the same time, and may 
have helped their father to feel that Emanuel was requiring 
more than was wise to expend in scientific pursuits. The 
chief part of this property left by the Bishop's first wife was 
in iron- works at Skinskatteberg. It now appears that the 
Bishop ' has made us a present of his share in the mining 
property ; ' and later, by purchase from the other heirs, Swe- 
denborg and the husband of a cousin became sole owners. 
In 1720 the second wife of the Bishop died; and that she 
was not so much estranged from Emanuel as he at one time 
thought, we may infer from her desire to leave to him her 
mining property at Starbo. It was only by the earnest per- 
suasion of her husband, who had his youngest son, Jesper, 

1 Afterwards Benzelstierna. 



DEATH OF CHARLES XII. 



75 



close at heart, though living in America, that she was induced 
to make the other children sharers ; and this she provided 
should be arranged by Emanuel's paying them a certain sum, 
retaining the mining property himself. That he varied from 
this intention, by taking Lars Benzelius as a partner, he after- 
wards had reason to regret. Still another piece of mining 
property came into his hands, on the death of his own 
mother's brother, about 1 721, which gave him trouble enough 
in suits with his aunt, Brita Behm, who held four-fifths interest 
and wanted everything her own way. 

The expedition of the King to Norway was ill-starred. 
Happily Swedenborg thought better of his desire to be in the 
party. On the 8th of December, 1718, he writes again to 
Benzelius, — 

"I had the pleasure to receive your letter at Brunsbo, 
where I intend to remain until the Christinas holidays, and 
then go for a few weeks into the mining districts and to 
Stockholm. Thank God ! I have escaped the campaign 
to Norway, which had laid a hold so strong upon me that 
I could escape only by dint of some intrigues. I was glad 
beyond measure to hear of your intended journey hither ; I 
will by all means wait for you here. Although our dear 
mother makes some remarks about the fodder, still your 
horses will be very well taken care of at Magister Unge's, 
who is rector of Fiigre, or else at the inn where brother 
Lundstedt stayed for two weeks ; I will take care of this. 
If my sledge and furs would be of use for the journey, you 
might bring them with you. 

" P. S. Gyllentow, a redoubt near Frederickshall, was taken 
by storm on the 2 7th of November. 

" I expect my sledge, my furs, and muff." 

Alas ! before this letter was written, and only three days 
after the taking of the redoubt mentioned in the postscript, 
in the same siege of Frederickshall, his Majesty, Charles XII., 
had been struck in the head by a ball, while kneeling in an 
advanced trench and leaning on the parapet, and with a deep 



j6 ASSESSORSHIP. 

sigh fell dead. Said his French engineer, " There, the play is 
over ; let us be gone ! " Years afterwards Swedenborg, in his 
Economy of the Animal Kingdom, describing the " genuine 
valor" resulting "from the imperative mandate Of the soul, 
which aspires to the glory or pleasure anticipated from the 
achievement of general good to society," added, "This 
genuine valor we may observe illustrated in Charles XII., 
late King of Sweden, that hero of the North, who did not 
know what that was that others called fear ; nor what that 
spurious valor and daring that is excited by inebriating 
draughts, for he never tasted any liquid but pure water : of 
him we may say that he led a life more remote from death, 
and in fact lived more, than other men " (vol. i. p. 192). 

A long silence fitly marks the loss of the royal patron. 
Polhem breaks it, April 18, 1719, asking Benzelius for news 
of Swedenborg, saying that he has not heard from him for 
some time, and three of his own letters have come back to 
him from Stockholm. "As I understand," he says, "that he 
is probably now at Upsal, I must beg you to offer him my 
greeting, or else to send it to him by letter wherever he may 
be at present, and also to ask him to favor me with one of his 
welcome letters, which are so much the more acceptable in 
our house as he has given us sufficient cause to love him as 
our own son." 

From Swedenborg himself we hear nothing till the next 
November, almost a year from his last date, when he writes 
to Benzelius from Stockholm about a report from France that 
the earth is found to be sensibly approaching the sun. He 
had previously written his own opinion that there is a very 
gradual slowing of the earth's motion, and hence a corre- 
sponding gradual approach to the sun ; but he is incredulous 
as to any detection of approach by observation. The dis- 
couragement shown in a previous letter as to the reception 
of scientific labors in Sweden seems growing upon him. 

" During the summer I took the necessary leisure to com- 
mit some things to paper, which I trust will be my last ; as 



NEW ESSAYS. 77 

speculations and arts like these are left to starve in Sweden, 
where they are looked upon by a set of political blockheads 
as scholastic matters which must remain in the background, 
while their own supposed refined ideas and their intrigues 
occupy the foreground. 

" What I have in hand consists, first, of a minute descrip- 
tion of our Swedish blast-furnaces ; secondly, of a theory or 
an investigation into the nature of fire and stoves, where I 
have collected everything I could gather from blacksmiths, 
charcoal-burners, roasters of ore, superintendents of iron- 
furnaces, etc. ; and upon this the theory is based. I hope 
that the many discoveries which I have made therein will in 
time prove useful. For instance, a fire may be made in some 
new stoves for warming, where the wood and coal which 
usually last a day will last six days, and will give out more 
heat. Vice-President Hjarne has approved of this in all its 
particulars, and if desired I can show the proof of it. The 
former of these treatises I handed in to-day to the Royal 
College of Mines. 

" I have also written a little anatomy of our vital forces, 
which, I maintain, consist of tremulations. For this purpose 
I made myself thoroughly acquainted with the anatomy of 
the nerves and membranes ; and I have proved the harmony 
which exists between that and the interesting geometry of 
tremulations, — together with many other ideas, where I 
found that I agreed with those of Baglivius. The day before 
yesterday I handed them in to the Royal Medical College. 

" Besides this, I have improved the little treatise, which was 
published at Upsal, about the high water in primeval times ; 
and I have added a number of clear proofs, together with 
an undeniable demonstration how stones were moved in a 
deep ocean. I have also adduced arguments to show how 
the northern horizon was changed, and that it is reason- 
able to suppose that Sweden in the primeval ages was an 
island. This I have handed in to the Censor of Books, so as 
to publish it anew. There is also quite a number of smaller 



78 ASSESSORSHIP. 

papers. The deep study by which I have endeavored to 
compass these subjects has caused me to look with contempt 
upon everything I have heretofore published ; but I intend 
to improve them very much when they are to be trans- 
lated [from Swedish into French or Latin] .... 

" With much love, I remain your most faithful servant, 

"Eman. Swedenborg." 

This is the first letter we have in which Swedenborg as- 
sumes the new name, which had been given in June to the 
wife and children of Bishop Swedberg, with admission to 
the equestrian order of the nobility, and so to a seat in the 
Diet, — an honor granted by the new Queen, Ulrica Eleonora, 
younger sister of Charles XII., out of the friendly regard she 
had always shown for the independent clergyman, and in 
return, perhaps, for. his support of the royal power. 

The essays here referred to are still preserved, but most 
of their subjects were afterwards treated at much greater 
length. Of the little book on geological changes, we may 
mention that so late as 1842 the great chemist, Berzelius, 
referred to it in terms of commendation before the Scandi- 
navian Scientific Association. But though in advance of its 
age, remarkable for acuteness of observation and deduction, 
and in some measure anticipating the science of geology, 
its premises were not altogether sound, and its results have 
been superseded by the more extended researches of later 
students. 

This letter seems to have pleased the worthy brother-in- 
law ; for, three weeks later, Swedenborg writes again, " I am 
delighted to hear that what I wrote you in my last was to your 
liking." He adds some further argument to show that no 
sudden approach to the sun is taking place. Incidentally he 
brings in his theory of the vortical energy which controls the 
solar system, and also each world in itself, but in too brief 
terms to be cited as a statement of the theory. At greater 
length he gives reasons for thinking that the sun cannot be, 



FUTURE PLANS. 79 

as some had conjectured, the abode of the damned. He 
would rather suspect that there is the abode of the blessed : 
since from the sun is all the heat, light, and life of the world, 
indeed the most refined elements of existence, where we 
might look for that which is above and within matter, and 
might even imagine the seat of God Himself. 

Here we have a ready basis for Swedenborg's later under- 
standing, after his illumination, that God is in the sun of 
heaven, and that through this sun He sends life and force 
into the sun of this world, for the support of material exist- 
ence. As to the fires of the damned, he suggests that the 
pain of burning is the effect of destruction of tissue, which 
cannot be what is meant in the Bible ; but rather he thinks 
the remorses of conscience might be a sufficiently strong fire. 
In this, too, he is approaching the doctrine he afterwards 
taught, when better instructed, that the fires of hell are the 
fires of selfish passion. But he piously concludes, " I hope 
that my philosophizing may not be misinterpreted ; for, after 
all, the foundation is God's Word." 

On the 1 st of December he writes again, — 

" Most honored and dearest brother, — I send you herewith 
the little work which I mentioned in my last respecting a deci- 
mal system in our coinage and measures. This is the last 
that I will publish myself, because every-day and home affairs 
grow of small account, and because I have already worked 
myself poor by them. I have been singing long enough ; let 
us see whether any one will come forward and hand me 
some bread in return. 

"There are, however, some plans which I have entertained 
for some time, and which at last have assumed a definite 
shape. I should like to see how far they meet with your 
approval : First, to translate what I have published into Latin 
or French, and to send it then to Holland and England ; to 
which I should like to add, by way of improvement, some of 
my discoveries about fire and stones, and about some im- 
provements in mining matters ; besides some other papers 



SO ASSESSORSHIP. 

which are not yet printed. Would you be kind enough to 
give the names of some who write scientific papers and 
memoirs ? Second, as I think I now in some measure under- 
stand the mechanics which are of use in mining districts and 
in mines, so far at least as to be able better than any one else 
to describe what is new and old there, and further to under- 
stand the theory of fire and stones, as to which I have made 
quite a number of discoveries, I intend to spend all my re- 
maining time upon what may promote everything that con- 
cerns mining, and, on the basis which has already been laid, 
in collecting as much information as possible. Third, if 
fortune so favors me that I shall be provided with all the 
means that are required, and if meanwhile by the above 
preparations and communications I shall have gained some 
credit abroad, I should prefer by all means to go abroad and 
seek my fortune in my calling, which consists in promoting 
everything that concerns the administration and working of 
mines. For he is nothing short of a fool, who is independent 
and at liberty to do as he pleases, and sees an opportunity 
for himself abroad, and yet remains at home in darkness and 
cold, where the Furies, Envy, and Pluto have taken up their 
abode and dispose the rewards, and where labors such as I 
have performed are rewarded with misery. The only thing 
I would desire until that time comes is bene latere, to find a 
sequestered place where I can live secluded from the world. 
I think I may find such a corner in the end either at Starbo 
or at Skinskatteberg. But as this would take four or five 
years' time, I am quite ready to acknowledge that long-laid 
plans are like long roofs, apt to tumble in ; for man proposes, 
God disposes. Still I have always been in favor of a man's 
knowing what he is doing, and of his forming for himself 
some clever plan of what it is most practicable for him to 
carry out in his life. I remain, most honored and dear 
brother, 

"Your most faithful servant and brother, 

"Eman. Swedenborg." 



CHEMISTRY. 8 1 

This letter we have copied in full for its frank expression of 
the writer's intentions at this time \ and now we must pass 
over a number of letters that follow, relating for the most part 
to various speculations in mechanics, anatomy, and literary 
matters. Anatomy seems to occupy his time mostly for some 
months. Then, May 2, 1720, he writes, — 

"I am at present engaged in examining all the chemistry 
contained in the treasury of the Sudeman Library, which be- 
longs now to Hesselius ; for I have proposed to myself to 
examine thoroughly everything that concerns fire and metals, 
a primis ijiciinabulis usque ad viaturitatem, according to the 
plan of the memorandum which has been already communi- 
cated to you. I take the chemical experiments of Boyle, 
Reucher, Hjarne, Simons, and others, and trace out nature 
in its least things, instituting comparisons with geometry and 
mechanics. I am also encouraged every day by new discov- 
eries as to the nature of these subtile substances ; and as I 
am beginning to see that experience in an uninterrupted series 
seems to be inclined to agree therewith, I am becoming more 
and more confirmed in my ideas. It seems to me that the 
immense number of experiments that have been made affords 
a good ground for building upon ; and that the toil and ex- 
penses incurred by others may be turned to use by working 
up with head what they have collected with their hands. 
Many deductions may thus be made which will be of use in 
chemistry, metallurgy, and in determining the nature of fire 
and other things." 

Here, we regret to say, ends in effect this series of letters 
from Swedenborg to Benzelius. Two or three brief notes a 
year, for a few years longer, are all that have been preserved. 
In these few there is no change of kind manner ; and the 
loving dedication of a small work to this brother-in-law, then 
Right Reverend Bishop, in 1734, precludes the suspicion of 
any coolness. Either Swedenborg's engrossing engagements 
checked the correspondence, or the later letters were not 
preserved with the earlier ones. In 1742 Benzelius was 

6 



82 ASSESSORSHIP. 

appointed Archbishop at Upsal, the primacy of Sweden ; but 
he died in 1 743, before entering on the duties of the office. 
He was a man of great learning, and had an extensive cor- 
respondence with learned men abroad. Of this correspon- 
dence, including the letters of Swedenborg, eighteen folio 
volumes are preserved in the Cathedral Library at Linkoping. 
His wife, Anna Swedenborg, lived till 1 766 ) and it would be 
a pleasant thing to find some of the letters which, we may 
presume, she received from her loving brother. But they 
were written, no doubt, in their mother tongue, and Anna 
has not left them to us. 

"To the Archbishop," rightly says the editor of the Docu- 
mentSf we "owe a large debt of gratitude" for having pre- 
served this series of letters from his young brother-in-law, 
written in the most vivacious and enterprising period of his 
life. In this unrestrained flow of friendly, family letters we 
gain a nearer, fuller view of the natural character of the man 
than we could have gained in any other way. True, it is 
the spiritual character of Swedenborg that we most desire 
to know; but the spiritual is born of the natural, in subject- 
ing its strength of mind and of will to the Divine Will. And 
thus, to know the spiritual intimately, we need to know in 
what struggle it has been born. By what we have seen in 
these frank letters, of Swedenborg's natural self-confidence 
and impatience at want of appreciation, we shall better un- 
derstand the depth of the spiritual humility and heavenly 
serenity that were given in later life. He loves much who 
feels that much has been forgiven. 



CHAPTER V. 

TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. OPERA PHILOSOPHICA. 

Our next information of Svvedenborg's movements is from 
a petition filed in the archives of the Royal College of Mines, 
dated Skinskatteberg, June 19, 1720, setting forth that he 
has spent all his time and money in perfecting himself in 
what would make him useful to his country, in conducting 
important works in its service, and in publishing scientific 
treatises ; wherefore he begs the Royal College graciously to 
provide him with some salary or other means of support, by 
virtue of his appointment as Assessor Extraordinary. What 
answer was returned to the petition, we do not know. Our 
documents are silent in regard to him for a year. Probably 
he spent the time in retired study, agreeably to his intention, 
as declared to Benzelius. It is to be borne in mind that his 
office as Assessor Extraordinary brought him no salary, ex- 
cept when in actual employment, of which he had little after 
the death of Charles XII. On the 30th of June, 1721, from 
the sea-port, Helsingborg, he writes to the President and the 
Royal College of Mines, — 

" As I am about to undertake a new journey abroad, it is 
my duty to make it known to your Excellency and to the 
Honorable College in writing ; especially as my only object 
is to collect more minute information respecting the condi- 
tion of the mines abroad and the processes which are followed 
there, and also to make inquiries respecting commerce, so far 
as it relates to metals." 

After stating more fully his plans, he asks for instructions 
and advice, and says that he intends, with God's help, to be 



84 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

in Amsterdam in six weeks, where he will await advices. Of 
this journey we have a brief sketch, as follows : — 

" In the spring of 172 1 I again went abroad, going to Hol- 
land by Copenhagen and Hamburg* There I published my 
Prodromus Principiorum Rerum Naturalium, and several 
other short treatises in octavo. From Holland I travelled to 
Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, Cologne, and other adjacent places, 
examining the mines there. Thence I went to Leipsic, where 
I published my Miscella?iea Observata. Leaving that town I 
visited all the mines in Saxony, and then returned to Hamburg. 
From Hamburg I returned to Brunswick and Goslar, and 
visited all the mines in the Hartz Mountains belonging to the 
houses of Hanover and Liineburg. The father-in-law of a son 
of the Emperor and of a son of the Czar, Duke Louis Rudolph, 
who resided at Blankenburg, graciously defrayed all my ex- 
penses ; and on taking leave of him he presented me with a 
gold medal and a large silver coffee-pot, besides bestowing 
upon me many other marks of his favor. I then returned to 
Hamburg, and thence, by way of Stralsund and Ystad, to 
Stockholm, having been absent one year and three months." 

The two Latin treatises, the publication of which is here 
briefly mentioned, have been translated and published in 
London under the respective titles of Some Specimens of 
a Work on the Principles of Chemistry, and Miscella7ieons 
Observations connected with the Physical Sciences. In the 
first-named volume are included also three other publications 
of Svvedenborg, of the same year, " New Observations and 
Discoveries respecting Iron and Fire ;" "A New Method of 
Finding the Longitudes of Places;" and "A New Method 
of Constructing Docks and Dykes." These essays give a fair 
specimen of Swedenborg's manner of treating scientific sub- 
jects. He first collects the observations and experiments of 
others, adding a few of his own, and then, with geometry for 
a guide, searches for the hidden causes and operations of 
nature. His theory of matter we find well summarized by 
one of his ablest translators, Dr. J. J. Garth Wilkinson. 



THEORY OF PARTICLES. 85 

The theory is, " that roundness is the form adapted to mo- 
tion ; that the particles of fluids, and specifically of water, are 
round, hollow spherules, with a subtile matter, identical with 
ether or caloric, in their interiors and interstices ; that the 
crust, or crustal portion, of each particle is itself formed of 
lesser particles, and these again of lesser, and so forth, — 
water, being in this way the sixth dimension, or the result of 
the sixth grouping of the particles ; that the interstices of the 
fluids furnish the original moulds of the solids, and the rows 
of crustal particles forced off one by one by various agencies, 
furnish the matter of the same ; that after solid particles are 
thus cast in their appropriate moulds, their fracture, aggrega- 
tion, the filling-in of their pores and interstices by lesser parti- 
cles, and a number of other and accidental conditions, provide 
the units of the multiform substances of which the mineral 
kingdom is composed. According to this theory, then, there 
is but one substance in the world, namely, the first ; the 
difference of things is difference of form ; there are no posi- 
tive, but only relative, atoms ; no metaphysical, but only real, 
elements ; moreover, the heights of chemical doctrine can be 
scaled by rational induction alone, planted on the basis of 
analysis, synthesis, and observation." 

To the above may be added the remarkable fact that Swe- 
denborg's crustal particles bear to the interior and interstitial 
space the ratio in volume of one to two, and in weight that of 
eight to one, — a coincidence with the ratios of the later dis- 
covered elements that is highly suggestive. 1 The theory once 
established would be found to furnish explanations of many 
other facts ; but the time for its verification has not yet come. 
The same is true of the theory of color, as depending on the 
recipient, light itself being purely white, — a theory, by the 
way, earnestly and independently advocated by Goethe, and 
learned by Newton himself in the other world, as stated by 

1 Dumas, in his Chemical Philosophy, remarks of Swedenborg, " It is then 
to him we are indebted for the first idea of making cubes, tetraedes, pyramids, 
and the different crystalline forms, by grouping the spheres." 



86 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

Swedenborg. The truth is, that, in spite of his constant ap- 
peal to experiment and to geometry, Swedenborg's reasoning 
does not always carry conviction. He seems to have a cer- 
tain inner philosophic sense, by which he himself sees clearly 
what others need to have shown by intermediate steps. But 
the chief reason why his scientific works have not yet found 
themselves in the line of thought of men of science, is that 
modern scientific work has been mainly devoted to observa- 
tion and differentiation of effects, while Swedenborg's thought 
rose at once to causes, with the ultimate aim of learning the 
operation of the First Cause. 

On his return, Swedenborg addressed a letter, July 14, 
1722, to King Frederic, the German husband of Queen Ulrica 
Eleonora, commencing as follows : — 

"Most mighty a?id gracious King, — As your Royal Majesty 
takes a gracious interest in the mining produce of your coun- 
try, and as you are likewise pleased to encourage all efforts 
by which the productiveness of our mines may be stimulated 
and increased, I therefore venture in all humility to come 
before you with some measures by which the mode of work- 
ing the mines in Sweden may be improved, limiting myself for 
the present to some improvements in the working of copper. 
For, by carefully investigating the process used in Sweden, 
and comparing it with that employed abroad, taking into con- 
sideration the difference in the ore, I have discovered some 
means by which the yield of copper may be considerably 
increased." 

Swedenborg then offers to prove, by experiment on a large 
scale, that he can obtain ten per cent more copper from the 
ore than is usually obtained in Sweden, besides making the 
result sure, which was at that time subject to the "luck" of 
the smelters. In case of failure of the experiment, he under- 
takes to bear the loss ; and on the other hand asks, that, in 
case of success, he may receive the first year's gain by the 
new process, throughout the country ; the right to demand 
a second trial being reserved to either party. 



ATTENDANCE AT THE COLLEGE. gy 

This proposition was referred to the Royal College of 
Mines, leading to a long correspondence between Sweden- 
borg, the Royal College of Mines, and the Board of Mines at 
Fahlun, where he wished the experiment to be tried. 1 It is 
not known that the trial ever took place, but Swedenborg 
afterwards published his improved method in the volume on 
Copper of his Opera Philosophica. 

In the spring of the following year, 1723, we find Sweden- 
borg reporting himself to the Royal College of Mines as ready 
to enter regularly upon the duties of the College, from which 
he had been so long debarred by his journeys and labors in 
Sweden and abroad. The College was ready to welcome him 
to their sittings, by virtue of his old appointment ; but mean- 
while there had been new appointments of Ordinary Assessors, 
and a question arose as to Swedenborg's proper rank. On its 
being referred to him, he readily consented to take his seat 
at the foot of the Board at that time, but with the condition 
that thereafter he should be in the line of promotion with 
the rest. Thenceforward he became an active member of 
the College, attending its meetings with diligence, save when 
abroad or occupied at the sessions of the Diet. For now, in 
this same winter and spring of 1723, Swedenborg seems first 
to have become an active member of the Diet, in which he 
had become entitled to a seat, as the head of his house, on 
its ennoblement in 1719. .It does not appear that he ever 
distinguished himself as a debater, neither his taste nor his 
strength lying in that direction. But, always alive to what 
concerned the welfare of his country, he did not fail to have 
decided convictions on important questions, which he was in 
the habit of expressing in the form of memorials laid before 
the Diet. The earliest of these which has been preserved, 
probably the first that he presented, bears the date of Feb. 5, 
1723, being read on the 7th. Its subject is the state of the 

1 At Fahlun is the largest copper mine of Sweden, which was worked before 
the Christian era, and at one time yielded five thousand tons a year. Gustavus 
Vasa earned his bread in this mine when driven from his throne. 



88 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

finances in Sweden, and its doctrine is that of the wisest 
statesmen to the present day. The opening paragraph is 
as follows : — 

"The chief cause of a country's increase in wealth is the 
balance of commerce : if its imports are greater than a coun- 
try can pay with its own products, it follows that it loses an- 
nually considerable sums by leaving them in the hands of 
foreign nations; besides, it diminishes the capital which it 
collected under more favorable circumstances, and which it 
should hand down to posterity. As soon also as a country, by 
an imprudent course, suddenly falls into poverty, it unavoid- 
ably sinks in the estimation of other nations, and they refuse 
any longer to trade with it, although in former times they may 
have enriched themselves by its wealth and sucked out its 
substance and marrow. Yea, more serious consequences still 
may ensue ; for unless a watchful eye is kept on the balance 
of a country's trade, a general want may be caused thereby 
which makes itself felt in the private circumstances of every 
one ; fortunes and possessions in the land are diminished in 
value ; no means are forthcoming for the support of the navy 
and army ; the defence of the country becomes weak and 
impotent; the public servants must be satisfied with small 
salaries ; manufactures and agriculture, together with all the 
moneys invested in them, depreciate in value ; besides other 
contingencies which, in such a # case, overtake the higher 
as well as the lower ranks, and especially the business men, 
who must suffer most heavily from it." 

He then presents two computations, the first showing the 
average imports and exports during the reign of Charles 
XL, when Swedish commerce was most flourishing ; and the 
second showing the balance of trade at the time of the me- 
morial. In the first case the balance of exports was four and 
a half million florins in favor of Sweden, and in the second 
case the balance was from two and a half to three millions 
against the country. "From which," he says, "it follows 
that the rich products of Sweden are no longer sufficient to 



MEMORIALS TO THE DIET. 89 

pay the excess of imported goods and merchandise, but that 
annually a part of the cash property of the country has to be 
employed to adjust the difference. ... As every one now is 
left in freedom to express his well-meant thoughts, and to 
suggest how the common- weal is likely to be best helped, it 
is hoped that it will not be unfavorably received if I insist, in 
all humility, that there is nothing the present Diet can do of 
greater importance than to examine, and to assist and pro- 
mote, all propositions which have for their purpose to infuse 
new life into Swedish commerce, so as to make our balance 
even ; and this for the sake of the private welfare of every one 
of us, and also for that of our whole posterity." Next he shows 
that Sweden has lost, first, the revenues formerly derived from 
various provinces that have been conquered by Russia and 
Denmark ; second, the freighting business which she formerly 
enjoyed, but which, during her wars and by the decay of her 
shipping, has gone into foreign hands ; third, her former 
profitable commerce with the now lost provinces. Finally, 
he points out Swedish iron and copper mining interests as 
the most important in the balance of trade, and most worthy 
of attention, and concludes with recommending careful in- 
quiry how the mercantile marine may be built up, unnecessary 
importation checked or cheapened, and domestic manufac- 
tures developed and protected. 

On the 1 8th of the same month, Swedenborg memorializes 
the Diet against the rule and law of the country which requires 
the mining of a baser metal to give way to that of a more 
noble, even when, as he shows, the mining of the baser, by 
its greater abundance, may be many-fold more valuable. 

In the following May he had occasion to present another 
and longer memorial to the same purport, in consequence of 
instructions given by the Diet to the Royal College of Mines 
to pay special attention to the mining of silver and copper. 
He showed that the yearly production of iron in Sweden was 
equivalent to fifty tons of gold, and that of copper was equiva- 
lent to less than fifteen tons. While, then, he would have 



90 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

the copper mines cherished and protected, he would not have 
it done at the expense of the iron mines. Yet he seems to 
have been opposed in these common-sense views by his own 
colleagues of the Royal College of Mines, on what ground 
we do not know. 

About the same time he presented another memorial to 
the Diet, setting forth the fact that Swedish iron was then 
exported in pigs to Holland, whence it was re-shipped in- 
land to Liege and Sauerland, where it was puddled and rolled 
into bar or sheet-iron, then carried back to Holland and ex- 
ported at great profit to various countries. This profit, he 
declares, with small expense and industry might be kept at 
home. He accompanies his memorial with drawings and 
details of the puddling furnaces and rolling-mills abroad, 
and simply submits the expediency of encouragement by the 
Government to those who will undertake the manufacture in 
Sweden. 

The treatment which this eminently reasonable and practi- 
cal memorial received at the hands of the Diet and the Royal 
College of Mines goes far to convince us that Swedenborg 
had reason to complain of the want of response to his genius 
in his own country and home. "This memorial was read 
before the Committee on the business of the Diet, April 20, 
1723 ; by them it was referred to the Committee on Mining 
and Commerce, where it was read May 7th. By the Diet it 
was referred to the King, by whom it was submitted to the 
Royal College of Mines and to that of Commerce, Aug. 10, 
1725. It arrived in the Royal College of Mines, Aug. 23, 
1725, and was filed for future reference, Sept. 1, 1726." In 
the course of three years and a half, a matter which would 
properly have commended itself for instant action is filed 
away for future reference ! So slow were the Swedes to 
manufacture the " Swedes iron," now in demand throughout 
the world. 

In September, 1723, Swedenborg asks of the Royal Col- 
lege of Mines to delay granting a privilege to Colonel Wollan 



ORDINARY ASSESSOR. 9 1 

for a new process of making steel, until an improved process 
can be tried that he has himself learned from Vienna. 

On the 30th of October he begs for leave of absence to 
attend to some private affairs in the country, inasmuch as he 
has been obliged during the session of the last Diet, since the 
beginning of the year, to remain constantly at Stockholm, 
and has thereby neglected some of his private affairs. The 
leave was granted on condition that he should first report 
to the President of the College ; and he went to Axmar to re- 
build a furnace for himself and his aunt, Brita Behm, which 
had been destroyed by the Russians. From this petition for 
leave of absence, and from the records of the College show- 
ing his constant attendance, it would appear that Swedenborg 
was now on the usual footing of Ordinary Assessors, so far as 
regular attendance was concerned. And in April of the next 
year, 1724, it appears that the College applied to the King, 
requesting that the usual salary of Bergmaster, or Mining 
Master, be paid him in place of Assessor Benzelstierna, who 
now succeeded to a full salary. In accordance with this re- 
quest a royal warrant was issued on the 15 th of July, appoint- 
ing "the well-born Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg" an "Or- 
dinary Assessor in the Royal College, with a salary of eight 
hundred dalers in silver." And again in June, 1730, the King 
graciously assents that Assessor Swedenborg, who has hitherto 
enjoyed only a salary of eight hundred dalers in silver, the 
salary of Master of Mines at Fahlun, should succeed to the 
full salary * of an Ordinary Assessor, in place of another As- 
sessor who had been promoted to be Councillor. 

For ten years, from 1723, Swedenborg appears to have 
been busily employed in the Diet and the Royal College of 
Mines, leaving no other record of his labors than the frequent 
appearance of his name in the routine business of the College, 
from which it would appear that he was in constant attend- 
ance, save when absent on tours of inspection of mines, 
forges, forests, etc. Of this period of his life we have no diary 
1 This full salary was twelve hundred dalers in silver,— about S225. 



92 



TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 



and no private letters, nothing but the brief public documents 
to which we have alluded. That he was all the time strength- 
ening his powers of mind by labor, and pursuing his studies 
with diligence, we have evidence in the works which in 1733 
he was ready to publish. 

Early in this year he respectfully asked leave of absence 
from the King, for nine months, in order that he might re- 
pair to Dresden and put to press his Opera Philosophica et 
Mineralia. The Royal College of Mines, being asked its 
opinion, indorsed the petition, as " it is well known to the 
College that he has, with commendable industry, persever- 
ance, and care, written much pertaining to mining which is 
useful and which the College would very much like to see 
printed." 

The royal assent was graciously granted, April 17, 1733. 

" In the month of May," he writes, " I again by royal per- 
mission travelled by Ystad to Stralsund, and through Anclam 
and Berlin to Dresden ; and thence to Prague and Carlsbad 
in Bohemia, where I visited the mines. Afterwards I went 
back to Prague, thence by Eule to Dresden, and from Dres- 
den to Leipsic. In Leipsic I saw through the press my Prin- 
cipia Rerum Naturalium, and my Regnum Subterraneum de 
Ferro et Capro, in folio ; together with my Prodromus Philo- 
sophic Ratio cinci7itis de Infinite, etc. 

" From Leipsic I went afterwards to Cassel, and over all the 
mines between that town and Schmalkalden. I then rode 
through Gotha to Brunswick and thence to Hamburg ; and 
finally returned to Stockholm by way of Ystad. I reached 
home in July, 1734, about the opening of the Diet. 

" It would be too prolix to mention all the learned men I 
visited, and with whom I became acquainted during these 
journeys, since I never missed an opportunity of doing so, 
nor of seeing and examining libraries, collections, and other 
objects of interest." 

Nevertheless our traveller kept a diary of this journey, 
which is preserved, and is interesting to read in its particular 



CATHOLIC WORSHIP. 



93 



description of what he found to attract his attention. We 
will draw from it only what throws light on his own character 
and pursuits. Nothing escapes his notice that concerns the 
welfare of the people among whom he travels, and nothing of 
which his own countrymen might learn to their advantage. 
On the way to Dresden he read a small book on the timber 
worm and its devastations in ships and piles. He details the 
various remedies that have been proposed, and concludes in 
favor of extending to piles the charring already practised by 
the Portuguese with their ship bottoms. 

At Dresden he notes, "June 14-19. I read through and 
corrected my Principia. 

"June 21 {July 2). To-day I entered the chapel attached 
to the Court of the Duke of Saxony, with the view of being 
present at worship, which is celebrated according to the 
Catholic ritual. It was impossible for any of the senses not 
to derive from it some sensation of pleasure. 

"The sense of hearing derived pleasure from the drums, 
flutes, and trumpets, which swelled their notes from the lowest 
to the highest, and still more from the singing of the eunuchs, 
whose voices emulate those of maidens, and from the full 
harmony of all the instruments. 

"The sense of smell is charmed by the scent and fragrance 
of the burning incense ; the odor and smoke of which are 
diffused in every direction by boys. 

"The sense of sight was impressed by the paintings of 
every kind which are hung around the church ; by the mag- 
nificent vestments with which the priests and monks are 
adorned, and in which they move in procession ; by the great 
number of ministering priests bending and walking in every 
direction like actors, and by their various gestures. And my 
sight in particular was charmed, because I happened to see 
for the first time the Duke himself and the Duchess, with their 
sons and daughters, — all of whom were most devout and 
attentive to the usages of their religion. 

"The interior senses, too, were charmed, because all things 



94 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

breathed an atmosphere of sublimity and sanctity ; because at 
the least sound of a little bell all threw themselves on their 
knees ; and because all things were expressed in Latin, a 
foreign language, by which the minds of the common people 
are wont to be most impressed. In short, the worship of the 
Roman Catholic Church seems to have been especially in- 
vented, and to be calculated, to charm the external senses, 
by alluring all the organs of the body, and so offering bland- 
ishments to the senses." 

The double date of this entry was owing to the change 
from the old to the new style, which had not been adopted 
in Sweden when he left. From this time Swedenborg adopts 
the new style. 

At Dresden he makes copious notes of philosophical 
treatises that he reads, and of museums and various manufac- 
tures that he visits. In Bohemia he pays special attention to 
mining and forging operations, of which he gives minute ac- 
counts. At Carlsbad he is struck by the same characteristics 
of Catholic worship as at Dresden. 

"August 1 6. I was in the Roman Catholic Church at 
Carlsbad, where I witnessed their worship, or their celebra- 
tion of the Mass, and where I observed that all things were 
most delightful, or suited to all the senses. For the ear they 
had the very best instrumental harmony, having instead of 
the singing of the people the completest instrumental music. 
The eye beheld various sports ; the gestures of boys, as well 
as of others, who were burning lamps and wax-tapers ; the 
magnificent vestments of the priests and of boys similarly ar- 
rayed ; everything in the light of these lamps shone with gold 
and silver. The sense of smell was regaled with the richest 
fragrance, with which the altar or the sanctuary was per- 
fumed. For the sense of touch there was the water with 
which the priest on entering sprinkled the people. The 
interior sense was struck with the priest's reverence for the 
Supreme Being, by his innumerable genuflections, and by 
those of the boys. The taste alone was left ungratified, 



OPERA PIIILOSOPHICA. 95 

except by what the priest, the participant in all these pleasures, 
could derive from die wine, which he alone drinks. These 
holy things of worship are formed for the pleasure of the 
external senses, and they are pleasing to the public gener- 
ally, because with them the external senses are the channels 
through which the remembrance of the Supreme Being has 
first to enter." 

We note with interest these first impressions of Sweden- 
borg in regard to the outward worship of that Church whose 
interior state and doctrine he was afterwards to expose. On 
the 4th of September he arrived at Leipsic, and immediately 
began to arrange for the printing of his Opera Philosopkica, 
under the patronage and at the expense of the Duke of 
Brunswick. On the 5 th of October he notes, " A beginning 
has been made with the printing of the Principia. Six sheets 
were printed this week. May Heaven favor it !" 

Remaining now quietly at Leipsic, probably till March, 
1 734, Swedenborg's diary is suspended. He is busily en- 
gaged in seeing through the press his Principia, with the 
succeeding volumes on the mining and working of iron and 
of copper and brass. Probably also he availed himself of 
intervals of leisure and opportunities to pursue the study of 
human anatomy. We have seen that as early as 1719 he 
had written an essay on the "Anatomy of our most Subtile 
Nature, showing that our Moving and Living Force Consists 
of Tremulations," in preparation for which he says that he 
made himself thoroughly acquainted with the anatomy of the 
nerves and membranes. While at Dresden, on the present 
journey, he notes with interest the published observations of 
some Italian students of anatomy. Interspersed between 
leaves of his Itinerary are found notes and essays on various 
philosophical subjects, some of them perhaps of somewhat 
later date, on "The Magnet," "The Proper Treatment of 
Metals," " The Motion of the Elements," " Comparison of 
Christian Wolff's Ontology and Cosmology with our own 
Principia" "The Mechanism of the Soul and the Body;" 



96 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

and, later, notes of a series of his own observations on the 
anatomy of the body. It is to be remarked here that from 
the first his studies in anatomy, afterwards greatly extended, 
seem to have had for their end a knowledge of the soul 
and of its mode of action in the body. Perhaps even a 
still higher end is hinted at in a paragraph on Faith in Christ, 
found among the above-mentioned notes. 

The Principia and its two companion volumes, called 
together Opera Philosophica et Mineralia, crowned Sweden- 
borg's mechanical and metallurgical studies. The three 
handsome folio volumes, of four hundred to five hundred 
pages each, were prefaced with an excellent engraving of 
the author, and a complimentary dedication to Ludwig 
Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick, patron of learning. 

The late Rev. Augustus Clissold, the learned translator of 
the first of these volumes, says in his Preface, " The object 
of the Principia is to trace out a true system of the World ; 
and in so doing the author has distributed his subject into 
three parts. 

"The First Part treats of the origin and laws of motion, 
and is mostly devoted to the consideration of its first princi- 
ples ; which are investigated philosophically, then geometri- 
cally, their existence being traced from a first natural point 
down to the formation of a solar vortex, and afterwards from 
the solar vortex to the successive constitution of the elements 
and of the three kingdoms of nature. From the first element 
to the last compound, it is the author's object to show that 
effort or conatus to motion tends to a spiral figure ; and that 
there is an actual motion of particles constituting a solar 
chaos, which is spiral and consequently vortical. 

" In the Second Part the author applies this theory of vor- 
tical motion to the phenomena of magnetism, by which on 
the one hand he endeavors to test the truth of his principles, 
and on the other by application of the principles to explain 
the phenomena of magnetism ; the motion of the magnetical 
effluvia being as in the former case considered to be vortical. 



OPERA PHILOSOPHICA. 



97 



" In the Third Part the author applies the same principles 
of motion to Cosmogony, including the origination of the 
planetary bodies from the sun, and their vortical revolutions 
until they arrived at their present orbit ; likewise to the con- 
stitution and laws of the different elements, the motions of all 
which are alleged to be vortical j likewise to the constitution 
and laws of the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, vege- 
table, and mineral : so that the entire Principia aims to 
establish a true theory of vortices, founded upon a true 
system of corpuscular philosophy." 

We shall have something more to say of this Principia 
when we come to review our author's philosophical studies. 
Of the other two volumes of the Opera Philosophica et 
Mineralia, on iron and on copper, there is little to be said 
of general interest, since they are practical treatises on the 
mining and working of these metals. In his own preface 
Swedenborg says, — 

" I intend to distribute the treatise upon each metal, as 
here upon iron, into three divisions. The first division will 
comprise the processes and methods of smelting, particularly, 
that are in use in various parts of Europe ; and as the 
methods in vogue in Sweden have come more under my own 
observation than those employed in other countries, so I 
dwell upon them longer in proportion. The second division 
will give the various methods of assaying ; by which the ore is 
tried in small fires, or assaying furnaces, and its composition 
examined, in order that it may be the better proceeded with 
on a great scale. The third division will embrace an account 
of all the different chemical processes that have fallen under 
my notice, with the characteristics of each ; and will deliver 
numerous experiments and observations which have been 
made on one and the same metal in the course of solution, 
crystallization, precipitation, and other chemical changes." 

The great learning and practical value of the volumes on 
metallurgy were at once admitted. The Academy of Sciences 
at Paris translated and published the treatise on iron. In 

7 



98 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

England the work was cited as of the highest authority. In 
Russia its author was elected corresponding member of the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences ; and at home he became Fel- 
low of the Royal Academy of Sciences. 1 Fifty years after 
its publication, on the report of a commission to the unfor- 
tunate Louis XV., that there did not yet exist any theory of 
the magnet, the Marquis de Thome responded indignantly 
and at length, declaring that the Opera Philosophica of Swe- 
denborg was held in high esteem in all Europe, and that the 
most celebrated men had " not disdained to draw materials 
from it to assist them in their labors ;" that "the theory of 
the Swedish author is a true theory of the magnet, and of all 
magnetism ; " and that M. Camus, who performed such sur- 
prising things with the magnet before their eyes, admitted 
that he had " derived from this author almost all the knowl- 
edge he exhibited on the subject." To this we may add that 
some practical electricians of the present day are finding in 
this theory explanations of results which they do not find 
explained by any other. 

In January of this year, 1734, Swedenborg, for the sake of 
gaining more time for the Opera Philosophica, had sent to 
the Royal College of Mines the following request, which was 
granted : — ■ 

"Leipsic, January 19, 1734. 

"Most well-born Baron and President, and also well-born 
and esteemed Councillors of Mines and Assessors, — As at the 
close of next February the leave graciously granted me by 
his Royal Majesty expires, I feel constrained in great humility 
to ask the most well-born President and most honorable 
College for a prolongation of my leave of absence for a few 
months ; because that time will be most important to me, as 

1 Professor Schleiden said that, if one should undertake to enumerate all the 
improvements which Swedenborg introduced into the working of the mines of 
his country, he would not find an end, and what he had merited from the busi- 
ness and arts of Sweden could not be told. Matter: Swedenborg, sa Vie, etc. 
p. 40. 



RETURN TO SWEDEN. 99 

I am at last under way with the press-work, and fully at work, 
and as I am assured, and find by the preparations that have 
been made, that I shall have finished it by the coming 
Easter ; but, in order to accomplish this in the manner it 
ought to be done, it is indispensable that I should remain on 
the spot. Besides, it would be almost impossible for me to 
start for home during the present or the coming month ; and 
the state of my health will not permit me to make so long a 
journey as would have to be made by Hamburg, Copenhagen, 
and thence onwards, during the winter season. If I should 
obtain from the well-born Baron and President and the most 
honorable College this extension of my leave of absence, 
there might likewise be granted me the permission, for which 
I pray with the same humility, that on account of some pri- 
vate affairs I might make from here a tour to Liineburg and 
Cassel ; and as I shall require for this purpose four or five 
weeks only, I hope that I may return early in the coming 
summer, with all my work done, and may be able to pay my 
respects to the well-born Baron and President, and to the 
most honorable Royal College. 

" I remain, with profound respect, most well-born Baron 
and President, and most honorable Royal College, your most 
humble servant, 

"ExMAN. SWEDENBORG." 

We must pardon to the manners of the country and of the 
time, what strikes our ears as excess of compliment and ser- 
vility. We shall presently find how much more grateful to 
Swedenborg himself was the republican simplicity he found 
in Holland. 

From the records of the Royal College of Mines, it ap- 
pears that Swedenborg was at his post, examining candidates 
for the position of Assay Master, on the 4th of July, 1734, 
and was constant in his attendance on the duties of the 
College, save a few days' absence from illness and from at- 
tendance on the Diet, until the middle of January, 1736. 



100 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

At that time he, with his brother-in-law Lars Benzelstierna, 
begged and obtained leave from his Royal Majesty to be 
absent several weeks to attend the burial in West Gothland 
of their father, Bishop Swedberg. On his return he was 
in attendance at the College until the last of May, when he 
again petitioned the King in the following terms : — 

"Most mighty and most gracioics King, — I thank your 
Royal Majesty most humbly for the great favor you conferred 
upon me several years ago, in graciously granting me leave 
of absence, by which I was enabled to spend about a year 
abroad, and to see through the press a work on which I was 
then engaged. I had the honor of humbly presenting to 
your Royal Majesty that work, which consisted of instructions 
and descriptions in metallurgy, and also of some new princi- 
ples in philosophy. But as that work was only a beginning 
and a part of what I had intended to work out more fully, as 
I had announced and promised in my former work, I there- 
fore feel bound to do what I have promised, and to accom- 
plish what has been begun ; and I am obliged for this purpose 
to employ all possible diligence to bring it to a successful 
issue. But as from my own experience I see clearly that it is 
impossible for me to fulfil this promise, or to elaborate a 
work requiring great thought and diligence with that cohe- 
rence and accuracy which it demands, and at the same time 
to apply my time and thoughts to public occupations and to 
my official duties at the Royal College to which I am bound 
in duty to attend; and as this very impossibility prevents 
my doing justice to both these kinds of work, as the work 
which in all humility I mentioned above requires long and deep 
thought, and a mind unincumbered with cares and troubles, — 
therefore, because I am bound to fulfil my promise, I have 
been induced to beg of your Royal Majesty that, to enable 
me to follow out this design and this well-intentioned pur- 
pose, and on account of the great extent of this work, you 
would graciously grant me leave to absent myself during 
three or four years from the public duties in your Majesty's 



NEW LEAVE OF ABSENCE. IQI 



Royal College of Mines, and that you would allow me during 
that time, while I elaborate and finish my work, to stay 
abroad in any place where I may most conveniently carry 
on my work, — that is, where I may find all necessary help 
in libraries and may profit by conferences with the learned, 
and where also I may publish my work when it is finished, 
which cannot be done at home in this country. I mean- 
while entertain the hope that this work will probably be of 
use to the public, and that it will leave at least the effect 
upon the common opinion among the learned that there are 
some in our dear native land who can elaborate and publish 
some things for the general good in science and literature, 
upon which other nations pride themselves in comparison 
with ourselves. 

" I feel so much more assured in all humility of the most 
gracious assent of your Royal Majesty, inasmuch as your 
Majesty's and the country's College of Mines will, at your 
Royal Majesty's gracious command, make an humble pro- 
position to you in what way the whole matter may be best 
accomplished, without any part of your Royal Majesty's 
service being neglected. 

" I remain, to the hour of death, most gracious King, your 
Royal Majesty's most humble and faithful servant and subject, 

"Eman. Swedenborg." 

On this petition his Majesty graciously desired the opinion 
of the Royal College of Mines. After the letter had been 
read, Swedenborg explained in a few words, that, for the sake 
of finishing the work he had commenced, he required to be 
free and away from his official duties for three or four years, 
even as he had mentioned in his humble petition to the 
King ; and, as he was well aware of the importance of having 
these duties attended to meanwhile by an able and experi- 
enced man, well acquainted with them, he desired to give up 
half his salary, or six hundred dalers in silver, and agreed 
not to claim this back after his return, until some vacancy 



102 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

should arise. He further desired that this portion of his 
salary might be employed under the direction of the Royal 
College, increasing the pay of those next in order, according 
to their services and the trouble they might undergo ; and 
that he himself might upon his return have his seat and vote 
in the College again. 

In addition to these verbal explanations Swedenborg sub- 
mitted the following letter to the College : — 

"Stockholm, May 26, 1736. 

"I thank the most honorable Royal College most hum- 
bly, for having taken into consideration the arguments and 
motives contained in the petition which I handed in all hu- 
mility to his Royal Majesty, and which have induced me in 
all humility to apply for leave of absence for three or four 
years, during which time I might absent myself from my 
duties in the Royal College, and employ my time in elaborat- 
ing a useful work which will be a continuation of the previous 
one, published three years ago. I presume the Royal College 
understands fully that in this matter I have no other object 
and no other end in view but simply to elaborate the above- 
mentioned work ; and the Royal College probably entertains 
so much less doubt on this subject, because I have the good 
fortune of having been known in the Royal College for so 
many years ; moreover, the former work may serve as a proof 
of what I accomplished during that journey, from which I 
had nothing but trouble and expense, and the only pleasure 
which I experienced being that which I felt when the work 
was brought to a close. In order that the business at the 
Royal College may be in no wise interfered with during my 
absence, and that no inconvenience may arise therefrom, I 
leave half of my salary at the disposal of those who perform 
the service. I hope that the Royal College will allow me to 
retain the other half, in consideration partly of the well- 
intentioned and useful design I have in view, and partly 
because I have been an Assessor in the Royal College for 



NEW TRAVELS. 



I03 



twenty years. It will both cheer me on and be an assistance 
in my proposed undertaking, which will be sufficiently ex- 
pensive. 

"EiMAN. SWEDENEORG. " 

In accordance with this request, on a favorable report from 
the College of Mines, Frederic, by royal decree of June 1st, 
granted the desired leave of absence, with the continuance of 
half his salary, and provision that on his return to the College 
he should be entitled to his former seat and vote. From 
th6 records of the College it appears that Swedenborg was 
present at its meetings until the 8th of July, and that on the 
10th he took his leave, not returning till November, 1740. 
From his minutes of travel we extract a few notes. 

"J u ty 3- I t0 °k leave of their Majesties at Carlsberg. 
They were very gracious. 

" Between the 3d and 10th of July, I took leave of the 
members of the Diet, my friends and others ; and on the 
9th, of the members of the Royal College. 

"July 10. In the afternoon at two o'clock I left Stock- 
holm. 

'July 1 2. Upon arriving at Linkoping I spent a day and a 
night with Bishop Benzelius and my sister, Anna Swedenborg. 

"July 18. I was in the church on Christianshavn. Divine 
service differs from that of the Swedish Church only in a few 
ceremonials. The clergyman has a stiff ruffed collar lined 
with black ; the blessing was pronounced from the pulpit ; 
two large candles burned on the altar on account of the com- 
munion which was solemnized. The warden invested the 
clergyman with the communion garments while he was stand- 
ing before the altar. There were no epitaphs or ornaments 
in the church ; only the organ and an altar-piece. The 
offertory was not collected in bags as in Sweden, but in 
little boxes, four of which were handed round. 

"[In the Public Garden] the most interesting object is 
the plantation of orange-trees, consisting of one hundred and 



104 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

sixty trees, not planned in tubs, but growing freely in the 
ground without being transplanted ; together with laurels, 
cypresses, and other trees. During summer the windows and 
roof are removed, and the trees are under the open sky ; in 
the autumn they are again enclosed. 

"July 20. From noon till evening I was at the house of 
Mr. Schutenhjelm [the Swedish ambassador]. I learned that 
among those most celebrated for their learning in Copen- 
hagen are Kramer, the Councillor of Justice and Librarian, 
who is distinguished for history and philology; Professor 
Holberg, who has written Danish comedies and a history of 
Norway ; and Rosencrantz, the Privy Councillor and Prime 
Minister. The learned have spoken favorably of my work. 
The same day I saw Wolff's l Natural Theology, in which, 
without mentioning my name, he seems to refer to me. 

"July 21. I made excerpts from Wolff's Ontologia and 
Cosmologia, of those parts which I shall need on the way, in 
order to examine more thoroughly his first principles of phi- 
losophy. 

"July 22. In company with Secretary Witt I was at the 
Library, which is magnificent and excellently arranged. . . . 
It consists of seventy thousand volumes : the octavo volumes 
are at the top, where access is obtained by a gallery running 
round the interior. They showed me Cicero's work printed 
at Mayence in 1456, which is supposed to be the first book 
ever printed : they showed me also my own work, but without 
knowing I was its author. 

"August 2. I called [at Hamburg] upon Pastor Christopher 
Wolf, of St. Catharine's Church. He showed me a collection 
of original letters from learned men, filling sixty volumes in 
folio and quarto. He showed me also an autograph collec- 
tion of the names of more than a thousand learned men ; 
likewise manuscripts in the Oriental languages. The collec- 
tion of letters he obtained from Schminkius, a burgomaster 
of Frankfort." 

1 Johann Christian von Wolff : Professor at Halle. 



HOLLAND. 



105 



In reference to this call on Christopher Wolf, we have the 
following note from Wolf to Benzelius, dated Sept. 1, 1736 : 

" I received recently your most welcome letter, which was handed to 
me by your relative, the most noble Swedenborg, who was known to 
me by name already. I value his most celebrated work in mineralogy 
so much the more, because in the present age scarcely any one can be 
compared with this most excellent and clear-headed man in this de- 
partment." 

"August 8. I was in several churches. There are five 
of them, besides the Calvinistic Reformed and the Roman 
Catholic churches. 

"August 10 and II. I studied matters connected with 
ontology ; took a view of the situation of the town ; inspected 
its ramparts, and saw everything else that was interesting. 

"August 1 7. From Naarden I came by canal-boat to Am- 
sterdam, where I took lodgings in the ' Vergoude Leuwen,' 
or the Golden Lion, not far from the Exchange. In Amster- 
dam I stayed until the evening of the 20th. . . . The whole 
city breathed nothing but lucre. 

"August 21. . . . I here [at Rotterdam] considered why 
it was that it has pleased our Lord to bless such an uncouth 
and avaricious people with such a splendid country ; why He 
has preserved them for such a long time from all misfortunes ; 
has caused them to surpass all other nations in commerce 
and enterprise ; and made their country a place whither most 
of the riches not only of Europe but also of other places 
flow. The principal cause seems to me to have been that it 
is a republic, wherein the Lord delights more than in mon- 
archical countries ; as appears also from Rome. The result is 
that no one deems himself obliged and in duty bound to ac- 
cord honor and veneration to any human being, but considers 
the low as well as the high to be of the same worth and con- 
sequence as a king and an emperor ; as is also shown by the 
native bent and disposition of every one in Holland. The 
only one for whom they entertain a feeling of veneration is 
the Lord, putting no trust in flesh ; and when the Highest is 



106 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

revered most, and no human being is in His place, it is most 
pleasing to the Lord. Besides, each enjoys his own free-will, 
and from this his worship of God flows ; for each is as it 
were his own king, and rules under the government of the 
Highest ; and from this it follows again that they do not, out 
of fear, timidity, and excess of caution, lose their courage and 
their independent rational thought, but in full freedom and 
without being borne down they are able to fix their souls 
upon, and elevate them to, the honor of the Highest, who is 
unwilling to share His worship with any other. At all events, 
those minds that are borne down by a sovereign power are 
brought up in flattery and falsity ; they learn how to speak 
and act differently from what they think ; and when this con- 
dition has become inrooted by habit, it engenders a sort of 
second nature, so that even in the worship of God such per- 
sons speak differently from what # they think, and extend their 
flattering ways to the Lord Himself, which must be highly 
displeasing to Him. This seems to me the reason why they 
[the Hollanders] above other nations enjoy a perfect bles- 
sing : their worshipping Mammon for their God and striving 
only after money, does not seem to be consistent with a con- 
stant blessing ; still there may be ten among a thousand, or 
among ten thousand, who ward off punishment from the others 
and cause them to be participants with themselves of tem- 
poral blessings. 1 

"August 25. . . . On our way to Brussels two Franciscan 
monks were on the canal-boat : one of these stood on deck 
for four hours in one position, and during the whole of this 
time said his prayers devoutly ; they probably were for those 
travelling in the boat. Such prayers must certainly be agree- 
able to God, so far as they proceed from an honest and pure 
heart, and are offered with genuine devotion and not in the 

1 Some seventy years earlier John Locke was similarly pleased in visiting 
Holland. Dugald Stewart cites him to this effect : " The blessings which the 
people there enjoyed under a government peculiarly favorable to civil and 
religious liberty, amply compensated in his view for what their uninviting ter- 
ritory wanted in scenery and climate." 



FRANCE. 



107 



spirit of the Pharisees ; for prayer avails much, as in the case 
of Moses, when the people were slain, and in other cases. 
Paul desired that others should pray for him." 

In the Cathedral at Brussels he is struck again with the 
same peculiarities of the Catholic worship he had noted at 
Dresden. On the way through France he comments upon 
the absorption of the wealth by the churches, the convents, 
and the fat and lazy monks, whose use is a mystery to him. 
Arriving at Paris he notes, — 

" September 6. I made the first draught of the introduc- 
tion to my new treatise [Economy of the Animal Kingdom], 
namely, that the soul of wisdom is the knowledge and 
acknowledgment of the Supreme Being. 

"September 7. ... In the first treatise, I showed that 
now is the time to explore Nature from her effects. 

" September 18. I was in the Palais and the garden be- 
longing to it ; in the Place Royale de Louis le Grand, and 
in the churches of the Capuchins (Franciscans) and of the 
Feuillants (Cistercians) on both sides of them ; likewise in 
the Tuilleries, from which one enters the Louvre ; also in the 
Com£die des Italiens. I had a discussion also with an abbe 
on the adoration of saints. He denied in toto that this was 
adoration, and insisted that worship belonged to God alone ; 
[he was opposed] to the adoration or veneration of the 
saints, and to the double veneration of Mary." 

Numerous observations of things that interested him were 
recorded in this year, 1 736, but very few in the following year, 
when he was busy with his studies. In March, 1738, he re- 
sumed his journal of travel, setting out through Burgundy for 
Italy. Arriving at Venice in April he remained there at work, 
no doubt in anatomical studies, until August. Passing August 
and September in Padua, Verona, Florence, Leghorn, and 
Pisa, he reached Rome September 25th, where he found 
abundant objects of interest, many of which he described at 
length. In the middle of February, 1739, he went again to 
Florence. In the middle of March he was at Genoa, admir- 



108 TWENTY YEARS' LABOR. 

ing the early bloom and the ripe oranges, lemons, and olives. 
Here his journal is interrupted, but from a letter addressed 
to him by his brother-in-law it appears that he arrived in 
Paris the middle of May. A year and a half later, Nov. 3, 
1740, we find him just returned to his seat in the Royal Col- 
lege of Mines, having published meanwhile at Amsterdam his 
GLconomia Regni Animalis [the " Economy of the Animal 
Kingdom"] in five hundred and eighty -two quarto pages, 
and having brought home a large volume of manuscript notes, 
under the title of "Various Philosophical, Anatomical, and 
Itinerary Matters," a portion of which have since been 
printed. In these works we find Swedenborg's mind under- 
going portentous development. From a devotee of practical 
science, he is now becoming a master in philosophy. From 
delving in mines, constructing forges and furnaces, and 
settling disputes among miners, we find him pressing up 
the avenues that lead to the soul, constructing philosophic 
methods, and resolving in new ways the great mysteries of 
existence. 

This development cannot surprise us, in view of the strong 
tendency shown from his youth to philosophize and seek the 
hidden causes of things, and in consideration of the rightful 
tendency of maturing thought to seek what is higher and 
more essential. What most surprises us is that Swedenborg 
himself should have been so unconscious that his new direc- 
tion of thought was in the line of permanence ; that he should 
have regarded it as an episode, though one of supreme ur- 
gency, from which he would soon return to his legitimate 
field of metallurgic science. But this all goes to show, what 
he saw later, that he was being prepared from youth for a 
work which he did not foresee, by a Power of which he saw 
but the shadow, after it had passed by. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

Let us bestow a little consideration on the part given to 
Philosophy in the order of the Divine Providence. The 
simple, perfect relation of God to man is best exemplified in 
that of the father to the child. Such was it at the beginning, 
when mankind was in its cradle. Such, we are assured, it 
must be again with us, before we can enter into our Father's 
kingdom. In this relation what God loves man to do, that 
man loves to do ; and there is perfect conjunction. But this 
involves free-will implanted in man, — without which there 
could be no reciprocity and no conjunction. Will, again, re- 
quires an understanding, for the ventilation and purification 
of its motive, as the heart requires lungs. As the will is free, 
so the understanding also is free. As, however, the heart is 
closed to all but its own life-blood, so the will is closed to all 
but its own cherished motive : while, as the lungs are open 
to every breath, from whatever quarter, so the understanding 
is open to thoughts from every source ; and as in the lungs 
the blood has the opportunity to select whatever it wants 
from the air inhaled, and to part with whatever it would be 
rid of, so in the understanding the motive of the will may 
be refreshed and purified. 

While the will is satisfied in infantile simplicity to receive 
its motive from the parent Divine will, the understanding is 
equally satisfied with the wisdom that makes one with it and 
flows concordantly with it from its Divine origin. But when 
the will seeks the indulgence of a motive of its own, it impels 
the understanding to seek ideas that favor the motive ; and 
both the one and the other stray wild. What now does the 



HO PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

Divine Providence? It cannot force the will; that would 
destroy its freedom. It does not force the understanding ; 
but it places before it instruction, evidence, from which it 
may conclude what is right, what is good, what is expedient 
to will and to do. Thereby in time is born successively a 
sense of necessity, a sense of expediency, a sense of duty ; 
and then a willingness, increasing to desire, to control the 
natural will, and in the end to accept again in its place the 
Divine will. Thus the child becomes a youth, a man, and 
again a child of the Kingdom. Thus the human race has 
been infant, child, boy, and is now man in the midst of his 
struggle ; learning by now bitter now happy experience, by 
philosophy and by revelation, the necessity and the eventual 
happiness of becoming child again. 

For the instruction of His people through this long wan- 
dering, God gives them a perfect Revelation of Himself, His 
Love, His Wisdom, and His mighty works, first in the visible 
universe, — Nature ; then from time to time in their own lan- 
guage, as they are able to understand, — written Revelation : 
and lastly in their own form and life, — the Incarnation : all 
to serve in leading and guiding them to knowledge of Him, 
to love for Him, and to a life in harmony and conjunction 
with His life. Now the true purpose of Science and of Phi- 
losophy, the end of ends, is to unfold these revelations, be- 
ginning with that of Nature, and to discover in them the 
mysteries of the Divine nature, of human nature, and of their 
true conjunction. It is Science that gathers materials, obser- 
vations and experiments. It is Philosophy that seeks their 
hidden cause and connection, and searches for their Divine 
purpose. It is practice in both that trains the mind to appre- 
ciate the relations of things, and to understand the secrets of 
the Divine Providence ; and all to the end that the heart 
may be brought back to love for its Maker, and to willing- 
ness to receive His will in place of its own, with the firm 
support of the mind's conviction that this is the highest 
possible good. 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. I I I 

The first philosophic training of the mind within the com- 
pass of our civilization was brought about in Greece, begin- 
ning some six hundred years before the era when God in His 
Wisdom was to be made flesh, and to live among us the life 
designed for us, — the true human life. History shows un- 
mistakably the purpose and the service of this philosophic 
training, in the reception of the Gospel. Without this train- 
ing Christianity could hardly have obtained a foothold in the 
world. 1 There was no resting-place for it among the Jews, 
who crucified their Messiah. There could be none among 
the idolatrous savages, till these were subdued by the more 
civilized Greeks and Romans. Among the Greeks and Ro- 
mans it found a place solely by means of the philosophic 
training which, beginning with Thales, — with the notion of a 
simple original element of all substances, assumed to be water, 
and passing through a dozen schools, each of which seized on 
some peculiar phase of existence, — came at last to the emi- 
nently reasonable, almost Christian views of Socrates, Plato, 
and Aristotle ; views to which the successive schools of 
Philosophy are continually recurring, even to this day. 

Nothing more wonderful than the theosophic and philo- 
sophic development of those three centuries, from 600 to 
300 b. c, is recorded in history. It was the development of 
human reason, but inspired, we know not how far, by ancient 
Revelation, and provided by the Lord, in preparation for the 
reception of His Gospel. Of the remaining three centuries 
there is little to be said in point of philosophic progress. 
While the noble systems already elaborated were slowly per- 
meating the masses, other systems arose of less importance, 
but with two effective ends, — the one inculcating morality as 
the chief good, the other sceptical, setting men's minds 
free from old traditions ; in this respect bearing remarkable 

1 It may even be questioned whether without it could have been written the 
Gospel of John, " the Heart of Christ." For though the truth of the "Word 
is Divine, it can be dictated to men and written by them only in words and 
thoughts familiar to them. And John did not, it is supposed, write his Gos- 
pel till after many years' experience in teaching it to the Greek mind. 



112 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

analogy to the current systems in what Schwegler calls the 
"clearing up" period of the eighteenth century. 

And the Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us. By 
this we understand that God revealed the Wisdom of His 
own Love in human form and life, that therein man might 
learn so much of his Maker as he can comprehend, and be- 
hold a Divine example of the perfect humanity for which he is 
himself created. For, in the humanity, — of power as its own, 
though really received from the Divine Power, — our Lord, 
in obedience to the Divine commands, resisted and overcame 
the human will, and accepted the Divine will in its place ; just 
as He now labors with us to help us do. It is only by study 
of the example thus given of perfect manhood, that we can 
follow in His footsteps, accept His salvation, and approximate 
the life for which we are designed. The sublimest feature of 
the life thus presented us is its perfect faith in the Divine 
will, and its acceptance of it in place of the natural human 
will. This faith, then, is our highest aspiration. But it is not 
given to all alike. To Thomas it was given to believe after 
he had seen ; but they were called blessed who had not seen, 
and yet had believed. There were twelve, a full number, of 
disciples ; and Thomas was one of them. So were there twelve 
tribes of Israel, and twelve times twelve thousand sealed for 
their Lord's kingdom ; because this kingdom is for all who 
will believe, whether by the intuitive faith of love or by the 
slow conviction of reluctant reason. For, in truth, our Lord 
fulfilled the Divine Word in all degrees of His humanity; 
natural reason and even corporeal sense He subjected to the 
Divine will, reducing them all to its service, to the end that 
wherever we are, there He may be found, Maker and Re- 
deemer, God-with-us. And indeed what is true of the whole 
together, is true in a measure of each one in particular. As 
the whole kingdom of our Lord embraces all phases of faith, 
from the highest to the lowest, and as He Himself made all 
these phases full and perfect in Himself, so in each one of us, 
all the phases need to be represented, in potentiality or possi- 



STAGES OF THE CHURCH. U3 

bility, if not in actuality. In other words, no phase alone is 
anywhere complete and enduring except by the real or possi- 
ble support of all other phases. With this in mind, we shall 
be helped to understand the phases we find in the history of 
the Christian Church. 

Comte, followed by John Stuart Mill, recognizes in every 
development three stages, — the theological, the metaphysical, 
and the positive ; or, as called by Mill, the volitional, the 
abstractional, and the experiential. The first of these they 
call spontaneous and primitive, the second transitional, and 
the third final. 

Fichte finds five periods : " I. The domination of In- 
stinct over Reason : this is the primitive age. II. The 
general instinct gives place to an external dominant Au- 
thority : this is the age of doctrines unable to convince, and 
employing force to produce a blind belief, claiming un- 
limited obedience ; this is the period in which evil arises. 
III. The Authority, dominant in the preceding epoch, but 
constantly attacked by Reason, becomes weak and wavering : 
this is the epoch of scepticism and licentiousness. IV. Rea- 
son becomes conscious of itself; truth makes itself known ; 
the science of Reason develops itself: this is the beginning 
of that perfection which Humanity is destined to attain. V. 
The science of Reason is applied ; Humanity fashions itself 
after the ideal standard of Reason : this is the epoch of Art, 
the last term in the history of our species." 1 

The defect of both these schemes is that they do not com- 
prehend the high end for which all that they include is but the 
preparation. They do not look to the Divine-Human type. 
They leave man but a reasoning animal, serving himself and 
not God, living his own life and not the Divine. Yet they 
are of interest as declaring the limit to which merely human 
speculation can reach, as themselves are the limit of the 
period of sensual reason to which they belong, — sensual rea- 
son in its two aspects : the one material, positive ; the other 

1 Lewes: History of Philosophy, ii. 375. 
8 



114 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

intellectual, ideal ; but both appealing solely to consciousness, 
or sense, either physical or intellectual. With the heart and 
its interior perception they have nothing to do. And yet how- 
impotent is mere intellectual reasoning to satisfy the longing 
of the soul, we have learned from one of its greatest masters : 
"'Lord, I believe: help Thou mine unbelief ! ' Philosoph- 
ical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of 
the universe in comparison with the insignificance of this 
Globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith that is 
in me ; but my heart has assured and reassured me that the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine Reality. The 
Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human produc- 
tion. This belief enters into the very depth of my con- 
science. The whole history of man proves it." 1 

Faith, which alone can satisfy the soul, was in the first age 
of the Christian Church instinctive faith. The faith of the 
Apostles was childlike, inspired by the sight and hearing of 
their Master, and by being fed at His hands. It was good, 
but it was not communicable to all ; it was not enduring ; it 
had not an ultimate foundation in human reason, whereby 
to withstand the assaults of the enemy. It was not a mis- 
carriage of the Divine purpose that this faith came to grief 
in failure and perversion. This end was foretold to Peter, 
who was its representative : " When thou shalt be old, thou 
shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and 
carry thee whither thou wouldst not" (John xxi. 18). 

The faith of childhood must fail, in contact with the world's 
temptations, and must give place to the faith of manhood, 
born in its vastation. The insufficiency must be learned of 
faith inspired by hope and fear ; and the foundations of an 
enduring faith, based on intelligent choice of the good and 
the true, must be laid in the grounds of even sensual reason. 
The child must go to school, and learn first from masters. 
The age of infancy passed, as Fichte says, into a stage of 
"external dominant authority," an "age of doctrines un- 
1 Daniel Webster : for his tombstone. 



STAGE OF OBEDIENCE. 



115 



able to convince, and employing force to produce a blind 
belief, claiming unlimited obedience," a "period in which 
Evil arises." l 

We need not lament this tyranny, under which the slaves of 
Rome and the half-civilized tribes of the North first learned 
their letters and their catechism. It was of Providence, and 
in due order of progress, that these were well learned and 
became a guiding power in the mind, before Reason began 
its struggle for birth and liberty. It was not, however, until 
the ninth century, when Charlemagne established schools 
among a people born for the exercise of the reasoning faculty, 
— himself the first pupil, — that even this school-boy knowl- 
edge was made the people's own. 2 No printed books as yet : 
the instruction was oral, and disputations were instituted ; the 
learner was encouraged to ask why and wherefore. Priests 
were still the teachers, the topics dogmas ; and the whole 
force of the developing reason was applied to sustain the 
dogmas. But the very effort invited question ; the Church 
at Rome took alarm, and thereafter endeavored to suppress 
discussion. 

Happily, though it assumed to be His vicegerent, the 
Church did not compass all the Lord's counsels nor control 
His world. Before His coming in the flesh, as we have seen, 
He had laid the foundations of the philosophy that was to 
accept Him when it should be duly informed and chastened. 
Of His Providence this philosophy, when banished by the 
growing dogmatism of the Church, had found refuge in the 
East ; and now, when the nations were prepared for its Chris- 
tian absorption and development, it was brought back into 
Europe by the Egyptian, the Assyrian, and the Jew. The 
old Greek philosophy, enriched in the courts of Syria and 

1 Appendix VIII. 

2 It is of interest that from the free soil of England, where the Venerable 
Bede had already labored to make the Scriptures known to the people, came 
Charlemagne's teacher and Bede's pupil, Alcuin. Bede and Alcuin were em- 
phatically the teachers of the people, not only in the Scriptures, but in all the 
knowledge of the time. 



Il6 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

Persia, whither it had fled for shelter, was brought back by 
the Mahometans into Spain ; and in Andalusia the Arab, 
the Persian, the Copt, the Jew, and the Christian studied to- 
gether in peace. 1 Thence by the trading Jew the Arabian 
philosophy, as it is called, was carried all over Europe to the 
starving Christian students. So of old the Lord sent ravens 
to feed His prophet with food that His people denied him. 
It is beautiful to see how the remnants of former Churches 
were made instrumental in providing, within the Christian 
Church, the foundations of the new Church that is to be 
the crown of all, and the tabernacle of God with men. 

This was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the 
thirteenth, while the Church of Rome was making confession 
obligatory, and forbidding to the laity the use of the Sacred 
Scriptures in their own tongue, 2 Roger Bacon, true prophet 
of the age to come, spoke out boldly for the free search after 
truth under the light of the Scriptures, of mathematics, and 
of experiment. In the fourteenth century Wycliffe, prophet 
of the Reformation in religion, as Roger Bacon was of that 
in philosophy, denounced the Pope as Antichrist, and laid the 
foundation for Protestantism in the North, at the same time 
that the Southern heart was expressing in painting and song 
its yearning for a more direct communication with its Lord 
than could be had through the priesthood. In the fifteenth 
century the bold work went on, Reason forging and burnish- 
ing its weapons for the coming struggle, while Rome was 

1 In the nth century there were in Mahometan Spain seventy public libraries 
and colleges in all the principal cities, the professors being munificently com- 
pensated. " Mahometanism. like Judaism, claimed all for God. It allowed 
no separation between the secular and the sacred ; for the earth was the 
Lord's and the fulness thereof, and His sovereignty over all made all things 
sacred. It had no fear of knowledge, of science, of philosophy, — these were the 
avenues to self-humiliation, and self-humiliation was its goal." — Rev. George 
Matheson : Growth of the Spirit of Christianity, ii. 94. 

2 As early as the 5th century the common study of the Sacred Scriptures had 
been decried in the Church ; but the first actual prohibition of their possession 
by the laity was enacted by the Synod of Toulouse in 1229. The Psalter was 
excepted, but not in the language of the people. 



DEVELOPMENT OF REASON. 



117 



blindly ministering to her luxury with Greek culture, now 
driven from Constantinople by the Turks, and sending her 
merchants for gold and silver even to the New World, which 
Providence had reserved for the home of free thought. In 
the sixteenth century came the outbreak, and with it the 
use of the printing-press for the interchange of ideas. 

In the seventeenth century, while a Swedish King saved 
Protestantism in Northern Europe, and our forefathers were 
fleeing to the savage shores of America for greater freedom of 
worship ; while at Rome Giordano Bruno was being burned 
at the stake for declaring his belief in more worlds than one, 
and Galileo was confined in a dungeon for denying that this 
earth is the centre of the universe, — two powerful thinkers 
were trenching wide and deep, in different directions, for the 
exercise of human reason. Francis Bacon laid open to eager 
view the happy results, intellectual and material, that would 
follow from the pursuit of science and philosophy by induction, 
or by collating particular observations and being led by them 
into general laws. Descartes, on the other hand, seizing 
upon the consciousness of one's own existence as a starting- 
point, using intellectual instead of physical sense as his cri- 
terion of existence, established a system of idealism, or meta- 
physics, depending on deduction from generals to particulars. 
The century thus opened was immensely fruitful of scientific 
observations, and at the same time of both idealistic and 
realistic, or materialistic, thought. It was the age of Spinoza 
and Leibnitz, of Hobbes and Locke, who were closely fol- 
lowed in the next century by Berkeley and Hume, Condillac 
and Hartley, Christian Wolff and Immanuel Kant. 

To measure our indebtedness to these great explorers of 
the powers, the routes, and the limits of human reason by the 
degree in which we now follow in their footsteps, would be as 
great an injustice as to measure our indebtedness to Colum- 
bus, Cabot, and Raleigh, by the degree in which we follow 
their routes and charts of the New World. They were 
pioneers on different lines of exploration whose monuments 



Il8 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

are of lasting service, whether to warn or to beckon us on. 
Even when they discover but negative results, we find them 
all to be earnest, God-fearing men, paying their tribute to 
His infinity, in the confession of human inability to fathom 
its nature and its operation in man. 1 Scarce one of them but 
has confessed that the one thing of which man is most sure, 
beyond the fact of his own existence, is the existence of an 
Infinite Being. But what the Infinite is, and how related to 
the finite, — questions involving the nature and responsibility 
of the soul, — no one of them was able to show in a manner to 
satisfy even his own generation. On the one hand reason 
tended to make all nature, even human actions, the direct 
outcome and manifestation of the Deity. On the other hand 
reason tended to ignore all cognitions but the impressions of 
sense, attributable to physical causes. 

" The grand secrets of Necessity and Free-will, of the mind's vital or 
non-vital dependence on Matter, of our mysterious relations to Time 
and Space, to God, to the Universe, are not, in the faintest degree, 
touched on in these inquiries; and seem not to have the smallest 
connection with them. . . . Locke, himself a clear, humble-minded, 
patient, reverent, nay, religious man, had paved the way for banishing 
religion from the world. Mind, by being modelled in men's imagina- 
tions into a shape, a visibility, . . . began to lose its immaterial, mys- 
terious, Divine though invisible character: it was tacitly figured as 
something that might, were our organs fine enough, be seen. Yet who 
had ever seen it ? Who could ever see it ? Thus by degrees it passed 
into a doubt, a relation, some faint possibility; and at last into a 
highly probable nonentity. Following Locke's footsteps, the French 
had discovered that 'as the stomach secretes chyle, so does the brain 
secrete thought.' And what then was religion, what was poetry, what 
was all high and heroic feeling ? Chiefly a delusion ; often a false and 
pernicious one. ... In the eyes of Voltaire and his disciples, Religion 
was a superfluity, indeed a nuisance." 

So says Carlyle of this latter and prevailing tendency, in 
his essay on the Signs of the Times, — The Latter Half of the 

1 Even " David Hume, although a sceptic from his youth, was never an ab- 
solute unbeliever. He did not reject religion, natural or revealed, but he con- 
sidered human reason to be incapable of forming any definite opinions on the 
subject."— Rev. John Sinclair: Old Times and Distant Places, p. 167. 



LIMITS OF REASON. II9 

Eighteenth Century.* Mr. Lewes says of the dominant 
systems, — 

" The germinal error of Descartes was developed by Spinoza into a 
system from which Philosophy shrank back appalled. 

"The germinal error of Locke was developed by Berkeley and 
Hume into systems equally repugnant to common-sense. 

" The germinal error of Condillac was developed by the Sensational 
School, and received its logical expression in Destutt de Tracy : and 
Philosophy in alarm once more threw herself into the arms of the 
theological party." 2 

The limits to natural reason thus developed, and the fact 
of an inner, truer perception superior to natural reason's laws, 
none have seen more clearly than the great philosophers 
themselves. Thus Locke says, in his well-known Essay, — 

" It is plain to me that we have a more certain knowledge of the 
existence of a God than of anything our senses have not immediately 
discovered to us. Nay, I presume I may say that we may more cer- 
tainly know that there is a God than that there is anything else with- 
out us" (book iv. c. 10). 

Kant's results, as summed up by Lewes, are these : — 

" The attempt to demonstrate the existence of God is an impossible 
attempt. Reason is utterly incompetent to the task. The attempt to 
penetrate the essence of things — to know things per se — to know 
noumena — is also an impossible attempt. And yet that God exists, 
that the World exists, are irresistible convictions. There is another 
certitude, therefore, besides that derived from demonstration, and this 
is moral certitude, which is grounded upon belief. I cannot say, ' It is 
morally certain that God exists,' but I must say, ' I am morally certain 
that God exists."' 3 

This limitation by Kant of the domain of pure reason has 

1 Mr. Carlyle appreciated the contrast to the times found in Swedenborg. 
In a letter to a lady, in 1852, he said, " I have made some personal acquaint- 
ance with the man, read several of his books, what biographies of him could be 
heard of, and have reflected for myself on the singular appearance he makes in 
this world, and the notable message he was sent to deliver to his fellow-creatures 
in that epoch. A man of great and indisputable cultivation, strong mathemati- 
cal intellect, and the most pious, seraphic turn of mind, — a man beautiful, lov- 
able, and tragical to me, with many thoughts in him, which, when I interpret 
them for myself, I find to belong to the high and perennial in human thought" 
2 Lewes: Op. cit. ii. 3S3. 3 Ibid. 518. 



120 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

never been confuted. In his own words, as quoted by 
Bolton, — 

" The result of all the dialectic attempts of pure Reason not only 
confirms the truth of what we have already proved in our tran- 
scendental analytic, — namely, that all inferences which would lead us 
beyond the limits of experience are fallacious and groundless, — but it 
at the same time teaches us this important lesson, that human reason 
has a natural inclination to overstep these limits." 1 

While now on the one hand human reason was being 
brought to this humble confession of its own impotence in 
relation to Divine things, and was thus being prepared to 
accept intelligently the Divine guidance and instruction, on 
the other hand, with too large a proportion of men, it ran 
riot in its negative results, declaring that there was no God, 
no immortality, and no morality but that of enlightened 
selfishness. The culmination of this insanity was seen in 
the excesses of the French Revolution, when the Bible was 
burned, and Reason was enshrined in the temples as the only 
God ; when priests declared there was no other, and guillotines 
were erected in "almost every town and village" for those 
who failed to fall down and worship the idol. Such is natural 
reason when seeking only its own guidance, and in reality 
impelled by the Evil One. 

But while Voltaire gathered in England deistical argument 
and sceptical sneers at Christianity, Swedenborg gathered 
there Christian hope and materials for Christian philosophical 
argument. Newton was his first study on arriving in London ; 
and Newton, while tracing the laws by which not an apple 
falleth but by the same Hand that holdeth the planets in their 
courses, was devoutly studying also written Revelation, seek- 
ing to trace in the befallings of the centuries the fulfilment of 
the Divine predictions of the Apocalypse, and pointing out the 
error of those who veiled the One God with the mist of Tri- 
personality. It was not, however, by these studies of New- 

1 Bolton: Inquisitio Philos. p. no. Kant claims, however, that Reason 
in transcending its proper field, though it can do nothing in forming definite 
conceptions, can do much in establishing guiding ideas. 



SWEDENBORG'S METHOD. 121 

ton, which his friends would not suffer him to publish, that 
Swedenborg's thoughts were directed to the same subjects ; 
and we refer to them only as evincing the gravitation of the 
true philosophic thought of the times in the same direction. 
But, for the force of the gravitation, let us think of the 
influence of the Sun of heaven to draw all to Itself. 

We shall see the direction in which Swedenborg's philo- 
sophic studies were led, entered upon with entire submission 
to Revelation and under the earnestly sought guidance of the 
Divine Spirit, "even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world 
cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knowetl\ 
Him ; but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall 
be in you" (John xiv. 17). For it is only to our Lord's own 
disciples, who see in Him the Infinite dwelling in the finite, 
the Divine in the human, that the perception of interior 
truth, of spiritual philosophy, can be given. 

It was in the height of deistical speculation, of Reason's 
rejection of Revelation and endeavor to find God for itself, 
that Swedenborg had devoted twenty years to the study of 
the nature and causes of the world, with all the aid of existing 
philosophy. Let us see the result ; and first his method, as 
announced in the opening sentences of his Priiicipia : — 

" If the mind be well connected with the organs of the 
senses, or, in other words, if man be truly rational, he is per- 
petually aspiring after wisdom. The soul is in the desire of 
being instructed by the senses and of continually exercising 
its perception from them, as from a source distinct from 
itself; while the senses in their turn desire to exercise their 
perception from the soul, to which they present their several 
objects for contemplation. Thus each performs and con- 
tributes to the same common operation, and tends to one 
ultimate object, the wisdom of the man. For this purpose 
there exists a continual connection between the soul and 
body ; for this purpose also reason is added to the senses, 
and hence the desire after wisdom becomes the peculiar mark 
and characteristic of man : unless however he desires and 



122 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

attains to a knowledge which lies beyond or above his senses, 
he is far from being truly rational, nor is there a due connec- 
tion between the senses and the soul. The senses and their 
various organs can receive but grossly, and in an imperfect 
measure, the phenomena of the world. Now there are no 
animals beside man who possess any knowledge beyond that 
of the mere senses, and of their organs disposed in the pia 
meninx of the brain. They are unable to penetrate farther ; 
and, from want of a more subtile and active power, cannot 
refer the objects presented to their senses to a higher or more 
distinct principle. But truly the wisdom of man cannot be 
said to differ from theirs, if we refer the objects or operations 
of the world upon our senses, not to the soul and its reason, 
but to the same principle as they do. The sign that we are 
willing to be wise is the desire to know the causes of things, 
and to investigate the secret and unknown operations of na- 
ture. It is for this purpose that each one consults the oracle 
of the rational mind, and thence awaits his answer ; that is, he 
is eager to acquire a deeper wisdom than merely that which 
is proffered to him through the medium of the senses. 

" But he who wishes to attain the end must wish likewise 
to attain the means. Now the means which more especially 
conduce to a knowledge truly philosophical are three in num- 
ber : EXPERIENCE, GEOMETRY, and the FACULTY OF REASONING. 

First, then, let us ascertain whether, and in what manner, we 
have the power by these three means to arrive at knowledge 
a priori, or to reach in natural and physical inquiries the 
farthest boundaries of human wisdom" (p. i). 1 

After showing in what way these three means conduce to a 
philosophical knowledge of all things of this world, including 
hidden elements and motions, Swedenborg says, — 

" When, therefore, the philosopher has arrived at the end 
of his studies, even supposing him to have acquired so com- 
plete a knowledge of all mundane things that nothing more 

1 The paq;e references to the Principia and to other of Swedenborg's 
philosophical works are to the translations published in London. 



USE OF REASON. 1 23 

remains for him to learn, he must there stop ; for he can 
never know the nature of the Infinite Being, of His Supreme 
Intelligence, Supreme Providence, Supreme Love, Supreme 
Justice, and other infinite attributes. He will therefore 
acknowledge, that, in respect to this supremely intelligent 
and wise Being, his knowledge is nothing : he will hence 
most profoundly venerate Him with the utmost devotion of 
soul ; so that at the mere thought of Him his whole frame, 
or membranous and sensitive system, will awfully, yet sweetly 
tremble, from the inmost to the outermost principles of its 
being" (p. 35). 

After giving the rein to his imagination as to the condition 
of man in his first happy estate, when, his whole soul and 
body being in perfect harmony with the Divine ends, he could 
see these ends in himself as in a mirror, and all intelligence 
was open to him, Swedenborg returns to the perverted and 
imperfect state of man at the present day : — 

"In this state we see that no complete knowledge of 
anything can be acquired without the use of means ; we see 
that nothing can penetrate to the ultimate active principle, 
or to the soul, except by means of continual experiments, 
by the assistance of geometry, and by the faculty of reasoning 
to be thus acquired. . . . Now corporeal pleasures, cupidi- 
ties, desires, and vices of this kind have almost filled the 
whole man ; increasing with time, they pass from practice 
into habit, and from habit become completely spontaneous, 
so as to govern the will itself : in other words, cupidities at 
length take possession of the will, and withdraw it from the 
governance of the reasoning soul ; so that finally man is 
capable of scarcely any voluntary action but what proceeds 
from these emotions and desires, and is frequently without 
the consciousness of his rational principle. ... As then 
these disorderly emotions of the body have occupied almost 
the whole man, ... it is no wonder that at this day the 
faculty of reasoning is only to be acquired through the use of 
means, and that it is not possible to arrive by reasoning at 



124 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

the most subtile substance or principle, without the aid of 
analytical rules, to be taught us by a master, similar to those 
of geometry" (p. 40). 

It was in good part, no doubt, his dissatisfaction with the 
several theories of cosmogony advanced by Descartes, Leib- 
nitz, and Newton, that led Swedenborg to grapple with the 
subject in his Principia; yet he did not enter into any 
controversy. 

"In writing the present work," he says, "I have had no 
aim at the applause of the learned world, nor at the acquisi- 
tion of a name or popularity. . . . Such things are no objects 
of regard to any one whose mind is bent only on truth and 
a true system of philosophy ; should it therefore happen that 
I should gain the assent or approbation of others, I shall 
receive it no otherwise than as a confirmation of my having 
pursued the truth. I have no wish to persuade others to lay 
aside the principles of the various illustrious and talented 
authors who have adorned the world, and in place of their 
principles to adopt my own : for this reason it is that I have 
not made mention of so much as one of them, or even hinted 
at his name, lest I should injure his feelings, or seem to im- 
pugn his sentiments, or derogate from the praise which others 
bestow upon him. If the principles I have advanced have 
more of truth in them than those which are advocated by 
others ; if they are truly philosophical and accordant with the 
phenomena of nature, — the assent of the public will follow 
in due time of its own accord. . . . Truth is but one and will 
speak for itself" (ii. 365). 

At the conclusion, however, of the Principia, p. 366, Swe- 
denborg expresses his gratification at finding the principles 
he had adopted confirmed by those of Christian Wolff, whose 
works he had just read, two years after committing his own 
thoughts to paper. Wolff, on his part, was pleased with the 
work of Swedenborg, and hastened to seek his acquaintance. 
With this we may contrast the alarm expressed afterwards 
by Kant, on finding some of his own views anticipated by 



KANT'S OPINION OF SWEDENBORG. 1 25 

Swedenborg, whom he had known only as a mystic. Kant 
says, — 

"The system of Swedenborg is unfortunately very similar to my 
own philosophy. It is not impossible that my rational views may be 
considered absurd by reason of that affinity. As to the offensive com- 
parison, I declare, we must either suppose greater intelligence and 
truth at the basis of Swedenborg's writings than first impressions ex- 
cite, or that it is a mere accident when he coincides with my system, — 
a Iusits naturcc. Such a wonderful agreement exists between his doc- 
trines and the deepest results of reason, that there is no other alterna- 
tive whereby the correspondence can be explained." 1 

The doctrines here referred to are doubtless the scientific 
doctrines of the Principia- not the more purely philosophical, 
just entered upon in that work, and more fully developed in 
those that followed ; still less the theological doctrines of a 
later period. When Kant purchased the Arcana Ccelestia, he 
was greatly disappointed to find that it contained only ex- 
plications of Scripture, of no interest to him. 

It was a necessity for Swedenborg's mind to advance from 
science, as he found it, through philosophy to a position 
whence he could survey the continuous stream of the Divine 
Providence from inmosts to outmosts. In one lifetime, for 
the purpose in view, there was need that he should be led 
through stages which, for complete development, will task 
many generations. It is no cause of wonder, then, that his 
own generation quietly laid his Principia and other volumes 
on the shelf; nor yet that there they still lie. It need be no 
matter of surprise if some sticks of the scaffolding with which 
he built shall prove untrustworthy and have to be replaced, 
before we can mount with him to his summit. It would be a 
miracle if all his anticipations of science and natural philoso- 
phy should bear the test of later development. It would be 
foreign to Swedenborg's own genius and method to imagine 
such a result. It would amply satisfy him, and should amply 
satisfy all his followers, if the leading principles which he 

1 Kant: Leipsic, 1838, iii. 95. 

2 Probably including the Nebular Hypothesis. See Appendix IX. 



126 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

deduced from the science at his command should prove 
substantially true under the test of ages. Yet there is to 
his friends a pardonable pleasure in finding one after an- 
other of later discoveries and philosophic theories to be in 
effect but reproductions of ideas so long quietly shelved 
in Swedenborg's volumes. And surely it will yet be seen to 
be not by mere accident that there were laid away in these 
Sibylline leaves mathematical demonstrations of the homo- 
geneity of the universe ; of the nebulous origin of worlds ; 
of the all-pervading ether, and vortical magnetic element ; of 
the identical motion of atoms and worlds ; with hints at the 
grouping of stars in systems, at the position of our system in 
the milky way, and at cyclar mutation and return in order. It 
is simplest and easiest to believe, with our author himself, that 
a Spirit higher than his own led the way, and, as far as might 
be, kept his thoughts in harmony with eternal truth. 

But though science and philosophy have been anticipated 
by Swedenborg, they have not hitherto been instructed by 
him. It may be different hereafter ; but thus far we do not 
follow him in the labors by which his mind was prepared to 
receive, as on a solid foundation, the universal, spiritual truths 
of faith and life. We are, in the present generation, content 
to enter into the fruits of his labors. By these labors he 
was led to the largest conception of the Divine purpose, and 
to the deepest conviction of the Divine presence, with sus- 
taining, creating power, in each atom, as well as in the grand 
whole, of His universe. Thus it was that his mind found 
itself, in seeking inmost causes, awfully yet sweetly trembling, 
as in its Maker's presence. And in our following with him 
into this presence, his labors bear their fruit. 

In the same year with the Principia Swedenborg continued 
his investigation of the questions of his time in his Sketch 
of a Philosophical Argument on the Infinite and the Final 
Cause of Creation ; and on the Intercourse between the Soul 
and the Body. In this essay his unswerving faith in Revela- 
tion is conspicuous all through ; and with it a recognition of 



ON THE INFINITE. 127 

something higher than merely natural reason. In the Preface 
he says, — 

" Philosophy, if it be truly rational, can never be contrary 
to Revelation : that is to say, if the rational principle partake 
of the soul more than of the body, or the reason arise from 
no gross corporeal instinct, whose end it tends to realize, 
forming the soul by use and exercise for perpetual obedience 
and consent thereto. . . . The end of reason can be no other 
than that man may perceive what things are revealed and 
what are created : thus the rational cannot be contrary to the 
Divine ; since the end why reason is given us is that we may 
be empowered to perceive that there is a God, and to know 
that He is to be worshipped. If reason be the mean, en- 
dowed with the faculty and power of perceiving, and if the 
actual perception be the end, then the mean, in so far as it is 
correctly rational, cannot be repugnant to the end. The very 
mysteries that are above reason cannot be contrary to reason, 
although reason is unable to explain their grounds." 

Then begins the first chapter thus beautifully : — 

" In order that we may be favored and happy in our en- 
deavors, they must begin from the Infinite, or God, without 
whom no undertakings can attain a prosperous issue. He it 
is that bestows on all things their principles ; from whom all 
things finite took their rise ; from whom we have our souls, 
and by whom we live ; by whom we are at once mortals and 
immortals ; to whom in fine we owe everything. And as the 
soul was created by Him and added to the body, and reason 
to both, in order that the soul might be His, — so our thoughts, 
whether we revolve them within, or utter them in words, or 
commit them to writing, must always be so directed as to 
have their beginning and end from Him ; whereby the Deity 
may be present with gracious favor, as the First and the Last, 
in either end, as well as in the means." 

Then, alluding to the desire of human reason to be con- 
vinced in order to accept theology, he shows at length the 
impossibility of the reason's concluding anything in regard to 



128 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

the nature of the Infinite, by comparison with the finite. But, 
not abandoning the matter so, he proceeds to inquire as to 
the producing cause of what is finite, even of its first and 
least particular. Showing that it cannot have its existence of 
itself, nor of any other finite thing, since then the question 
would be removed but one step backward, he concludes that 
reason must admit an infinite producing cause. But of these 
there cannot be many, only One. Now, taking this Infinite 
as the cause of all creation, he deduces the entire variety from 
the same Cause, in all its order and intricacy. Then citing 
examples of this order and intricate beauty, — especially, in 
ample detail, from the construction and operation of the 
organs of the human body, — calling forth our admiration, he 
seeks to transfer this and transform it into adoration for the 
Deity. But this full acknowledgment, he admits, must come 
partly on self-evidence, springing from the human soul, and 
partly as a consequence from the arguments adduced. 

"There is in fact," he says (p. 46), "a tacit consent, or a 
tacit conclusion of the soul, to the being as well as to the 
infinity of God. This is dictated, I say, partly by the soul in 
its own free essence, partly by the soul as instructed and ad- 
vised by the diverse innumerable effects presented in the 
world. ... It cannot be denied that there is that in man as 
man, provided he enjoy the use of reason, which acknowl- 
edges an omnipotent God, an omnipresent and all-provident 
Deity ; it seems therefore to be innate, and to be a power or 
action of reason, when not on the one hand troubled too 
much by its own ideas, nor on the other hand too destitute 
of all cultivation and development. But we care not whether 
it be spontaneous or the contrary, if it be admitted that there 
is no one living, provided he be not over or under rational, 
but acknowledges the existence of a Deity, however ignorant 
he be of the Divine nature. Hence it is that after man has 
exerted his powers and whetted his reason to find out this 
nature, he falls into strange darkness and ideal conclusions. 
He knows indeed that there is a Deity; that there is an 



ON THE INFINITE. I2Q 

omnipotence ; but he has been unsuccessful in eliciting the 
nature of either from any dictates of reason. ... In truth, 
mankind is always desirous to imagine the qualities of God ; 
to bring Him within the bounds of reason and rational ideas ; 
and to finite and fix Him in something, by something, or to 
something. For this reason the above investigation has all 
along been the issue and offspring of reason and philosophy. 
And though the philosophers have heard that He is infinite, 
yet on behalf of poor reason, which is always bounded by 
finite limits, they imagine the infinite as finite \ being unable 
to perceive at all apart from the finite. We now therefore 
see why reason has failed, and that the cause is the same in 
the common people as in the learned." 

Proceeding then to point out in detail the errors of many 
theories, some of which it is easy to recognize, though their 
authors' names are not mentioned, all of which errors are 
owing to the judging of the infinite from the finite, he con- 
cludes that, — 

"Beyond our finite sphere there are verily infinities, to the 
knowledge of which it is useless to aspire ; and which in the 
Infinite are infinitely many, and can be known to no one but 
the Infinite. In order that these may in some measure be 
conceived by the soul introduced through faith into com- 
munion with the Infinite, it has pleased God to discover by 
Revelation much whereby the mind can finitely conceive and 
express Him : not however that finite perceptions or expres- 
sions are similar or adequate to Him, but only that those 
made use of are not repugnant" (p. 57). 

Returning to what has been granted, that the Infinite 
exists as the cause of the finite world, Swedenborg next 
questions whether or no there must be a nexus, or means of 
influence, between the Infinite and the finite. Showing by 
argument that a nexus is indispensable, he then shows that 
the nexus itself must be infinite, not finite. Assuming this to 
be within our knowledge by proof of reason, he asks whether, 
if any one can tell us more about this nexus which shall agree 

9 



130 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

with what we already know, we shall not listen to it ? And 
then he alleges, what he says has been taught by Revelation, 
that this nexus is the Son of God, begotten from eternity, to 
be the means of communication from the Infinite with the 
finite. But, from what he has already shown, he declares this 
nexus itself to be infinite ; and as there cannot be two infinites, 
the nexus, or the Son of God, is none other than the Infinite, 
God Himself. 

"To say then," he continues, " that the finite came forth 
mediately through the Son, is exactly tantamount to saying 
that it came forth immediately through the Father, or imme- 
diately through the Son ; since the Father and the Son are 
alike the Infinite, and the Infinite is the immediate cause of 
the finite" (p. 65). 

Then showing that in creation there must be a Divine, or 
infinite, final end ; that this end is to be reached through the 
whole chain of creation, of which man is the last link, the 
crown of all, — he declares that in man, therefore, for the ful- 
filment of the Divine end, there must be something that can 
partake of the Infinite : — 

" Not certainly in the fact that man is an animal, and has 
senses provided him to enjoy the delights of the world ; nor 
in the fact that he has a soul, for his soul is finite, and can 
contain nothing of the Infinite. Neither in reason, which is- 
the effect of the co-operation between the soul and the body ; 
which, as they are both finite, so the effect of both is also 
finite : therefore it does not lie in reason. So far we find 
nothing Divine in man. Where is that, then, which appears 
to be nowhere, and yet is necessary to realize the Divine 
end? ... It lies in this, that man can acknowledge, and 
does acknowledge, God ; that he can believe, and does 
believe, that God is infinite ; that though he is ignorant of 
the nature of the Deity, yet he can acknowledge, and does 
acknowledge, His existence, — and this without the shadow of 
doubt. And especially does it consist in this further privilege, 
that by that undoubting faith he is sensible in love, or delight 



THE MEDIATOR. I3I 

resulting from love, of a peculiar connection with the Infinite. 
But where he doubts, he does not acknowledge, and the 
Divine is not in him. All Divine worship proceeds from this 
fountain of faith and love. . . . Thus the true divinity in 
man, who is the final effect in which the Divine end dwells, 
is none other than an acknowledgment of the existence and 
infinity of God, . . . and a sense of delight in the love of God, 
although human reason cannot do this of itself, inasmuch as 
man, with all his parts and his very soul, is finite ; notwith- 
standing which he may be a fit recipient, and as he is in 
the finite sphere he may concur to dispose himself for re- 
ception" (p. 71). 

Now comes the crowning effort in this argument. It 
being granted that the Divine sought this final return of crea- 
tion to Itself, the question is asked, how it is to be secured 
through the various stages from first to last. The answer 
being given that it is to be secured by means of the soul, 
which from its altitude is designed to rule the body, it is 
asked by what means the true order is to be restored when, as 
must have been foreseen, the body refuses to obey the in- 
stincts of the soul and fails to serve its true purpose. And 
the triumphant answer is given that " God provided against 
this by His Infinite, only-begotten Son, who took on Him 
the ultimate effect of the world, or a manhood and a human 
shape, and thereby was infinite in and with the finite, and 
consequently restored the nexus in His own person between 
the infinite and the finite, so that the primary end was 
realized. . . . The Infinite . . . thus Himself became the last 
effect, — at once God and man, the Mediator between the 
finite and the infinite. . . . Without Him there would be no 
connection between the last effect and the infinite ; whereas 
through Him somewhat of the Divine may dwell in us, 
namely in the faculty to know and believe that there is a 
God, and that He is infinite. And again through Him, by 
the use of the means, we are led to true religion, and be- 
come children of God, and not of the world" (p. 79). 



132 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

Observing now that this is not the place to explain the 
nature of the connection by the nexus, he stops to consider 
the difficulty which may be felt as to the condition of those 
who have not learned and believed in the Messiah. He con- 
cludes that though the coming of the Messiah is the essential 
means of salvation, yet "those who did not know, and do 
not know, that He has come, could and can become par- 
takers, by the grace of God, through His coming ; for other- 
wise we should suppose something in God that would seem 
at variance with His Divine nature and end. But as for those 
who know the Messiah, or have the opportunity to know 
Him, we say that they too are made partakers through His 
coming ; but the knowledge also of His coming is necessary 
to them in order to their faith, for the quality of faith is de- 
termined by knowledge, and its perception rendered distinct 
and full; and therefore where knowledge is given, it and 
faith are inseparable" (p. 81). 

In the next chapter, having settled the primary end of man 
to begin and end in the Infinite, Swedenborg inquires into 
other ends relating to this world, and finds them all to be 
secondary, but good and properly conducing to the primary 
end, and receiving their highest delight in it. He says, — 

" It may therefore be said that nothing can be or exist in 
man, or the world, that does not tend to that one end ; so 
that in this way there is nothing, whether dead or alive, but 
adores and worships God, since all things tend to obtain the 
Divine end in the ultimate effect. And oh ! how greatly 
happy man would be, if he directed thither all worldly de- 
lights, and all the gifts of the mundane sphere !" (p. 83). 

In this reverent doctrine we recognize the true Christian 
philosophy of life, equally removed from sensualism and from 
asceticism, and such as he taught afterwards under the light 
of Revelation. The summing up of our author's argument 
is as follows : — 

" Observe what we have gained. We have the affirmation 
of reason for the existence of God, and also for His Infinity ; 



NEED OF REVELATION. 



133 



and as this is now positive knowledge, together with that 
other truth of the existence of a nexus between God and man 
in the Person of the only-begotten Son, so we may legiti- 
mately advance, not indeed to inquire into the nature or 
qualities of Deity, because He is infinite, and His qualities 
therefore we can never penetrate, but to inquire what there 
can be in man to lead to this primary end ; what there can 
be in him that does not repugn the infinite and the nexus ; 
how a confessedly infinite Deity may best be expressed in 
finite terms that shall not be repugnant to the occasion ; what 
befitting worship consists in ; what is the peculiar efficacy of 
faith proceeding from a true acknowledgment of God ; with 
innumerable other subjects, which cannot be settled briefly, 
but require to be rationally deduced in a volume by them- 
selves. And as, by the grace of God, we have all these mat- 
ters revealed in Holy Scripture, so where reason is perplexed 
in its apprehensions we must at once have recourse to Reve- 
lation ; and where we cannot discover from Revelation either 
what we should adopt or in what sense we should understand 
its declarations, we must then fly to the oracle of reason. In 
this way natural theology must proffer her hand to revealed, 
where the meaning of Revelation seems doubtful; and re- 
vealed theology must lend her guidance in turn to rational 
theology when reason is in straits. For revealed and rational 
theology can never be contrary to each other, if only the 
latter be truly rational, and does not attempt to penetrate 
into the mysteries of infinity ; in which case it is not truly 
rational" (p. 85). 

The second part of this essay on the Infinite treats of the 
mechanism of the intercourse between the soul and the body, 
evidently in pursuance of the efforts of Descartes, Leibnitz, 
and Locke, though treating the subject in a very different 
manner. Its essential feature is the careful distinction of the 
soul, together with the body, as finite, in contradistinction 
from the Infinite. From this finiteness the conclusion is 
drawn that the soul, as well as the body, has qualities, modes, 



134 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

and parts subject to a higher geometry and mechanics, and 
therefore subject to investigation and knowledge. But from 
the approach to the Infinite in the constitution and material 
of the soul, the absolute conclusion is drawn that it must 
needs be immortal. 

"The main end of these our labors," he says, "will be to 
demonstrate the immortality of the soul to the very senses. 
What is Life but the commencement, formation, and prepara- 
tion of the soul for a state in which it is to live forever after 
the body dies ? And what this formation and preparation, 
but the means by which the soul, — which in intrinsic subtilty, 
purity, and perfection, and in its capacity of receiving the 
Divine end, is far superior and very dissimilar to the natural 
body, — shall continually strive to form and bend the body to 
its likeness, and never suffer the latter to reverse the order, 
or to form and model the soul" (p. 148). 

This attempt of our author seems somewhat crude to those 
who are familiar with his later explanations of the same sub- 
ject. But if we compare it with the vague and contradictory 
theories of the time in which it was written, we find in it an 
immense step, 1 — and an indispensable step in the prepara- 
tion of the author's mind for the enlightenment that was 
soon to come. 

Already in the Principia Swedenborg had made use, for 
illustration, of details in the construction and operation of the 
human body ; and in the essays we have been noticing there 
are elaborate references to minute studies of the anatomy, 
particularly, of the brain, in search of the residence of the 
soul. It was in pursuit of the same end, to learn something 
of the soul and its Maker, of which these essays gave but pre- 
liminary intimations, that our author devoted the next ten 
years to anatomical and philosophical research, presenting 
its first fruits in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom. 

1 Appendix X. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES CONCLUDED. 

The Economy of the Animal Kingdom was a tentative 
effort, confessedly immature, to arrive at a philosophic view 
of the construction and operation of the human mechanism, 
especially as the abode and instrument of the soul. The 
subject, with this aim, was new ground, and therefore difficult, 
if not impossible, to enter upon systematically and master at 
the first onset. A reconnoissance in force was necessary, in 
order to determine in what way the final assault should be 
made. Such a reconnoissance we find in the "Economy" : 

" Our organs are opened only by degrees ; the images and 
notions at first received are obscure, and, if I may so speak, 
the whole universe is represented to the eye as a single in- 
distinct thing, a formless chaos. In the course of time, how- 
ever, its various parts become comparatively distinct, and at 
length are presented to the tribunal of the rational mind ; 
whence it is not till late in life that we become rational beings. 
In this manner by degrees a passage is effected to the soul, 
which, abiding in her intelligence, decrees that the way lead- 
ing to her shall thus be opened, in order that all actions, and 
the reasons for all, may be referred to her as their genuine 
principle. . . . There is need of time and of further progress 
to render the subject clear; and moreover the doctrine of 
the blood, although it is the first we have to propound, is 
nevertheless the last that can be completed. The result, then, 
must show whether or not those statements which at first per- 
haps appear like obscure guess-work, are in the end so abun- 
dantly attested by effects as to prove that they are indeed 
the oracular responses of the truth " (p. 3). 



I36 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

" In the experimental knowledge of anatomy our way has 
been pointed out by men of the greatest and most cultivated 
talents, such as Eustachius," and nineteen others named, 
" whose discoveries, far from consisting of fallacious, vague, 
and empty speculations, will forever continue to be of prac- 
tical use to posterity. Assisted by the studies and elaborate 
writings of these illustrious men, and fortified by their authority, 
I have resolved to commence and complete my design : that 
is to say, to open some part of those things which it is gen- 
erally supposed that nature has involved in obscurity. Here 
and there I have taken the liberty to throw in the results of 
my own experience ; but this only sparingly, for, on deeply 
considering the matter, I deemed it best to make use of the 
facts supplied by others. Indeed there are some that seem 
born for experimental observation and endowed with a sharper 
insight than others, as if they possessed naturally a finer acu- 
men. . . . There are others again who enjoy a natural faculty 
for contemplating facts already discovered, and eliciting their 
causes. Both are peculiar gifts and are seldom united in the 
same person. Besides, I found, when intently occupied in 
exploring the secrets of the human body, that, as soon as I 
discovered anything which had not been observed before, I 
began, seduced probably by self-love, to grow blind to the 
most acute lucubrations and researches of others, and to 
originate the whole series of inductive arguments from my 
particular discovery alone. ... Nay, when I essayed to form 
principles from these discoveries, I thought I could detect 
in various other phenomena much to confirm their truth, 
although in reality they were fairly susceptible of no construc- 
tion of the kind. I therefore laid aside my instruments and, 
restraining my desire for making observations, determined 
rather to rely on the researches of others than to trust to 
my own" (p. 7). 

After describing as from experience the faculty which some 
enjoy, — we doubt if ever any one more than he, — of con- 
fining their attention to one thing and evolving with dis- 



ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 137 

tinctness all that lies in it, of distributing their thoughts into 
classes, separating mixed topics into appropriate divisions, of 
skilfully subordinating the series thus divided, and of being 
never overwhelmed by the multiplicity of things, but con- 
tinually enlightened more and more, he says of such as 
enjoy the faculty, — 

" The fictitious depresses them, the obscure pains them ; 
but they are exhilarated by the truth, and, in the presence 
of everything that is clear, they too are clear and serene. 
When, after a long course of reasoning, they make a discovery 
of the truth, straightway there is a cheering light and joy- 
ful confirmatory brightness that plays around the sphere of 
their mind, and a kind of mysterious radiation — I know not 
whence it proceeds — that darts through some sacred temple 
in the brain. Thus a sort of rational instinct displays itself, 
and in a manner gives notice that the soul is called into a 
state of inward communion, and has returned at that moment 
into the golden age of its intellectual perfections. The mind 
that has known this pleasure is wholly carried away in pursuit 
of it ; and in the kindling flame of its love despises in com- 
parison, as external pastimes, all merely corporeal pleasures ; 
and although it recognizes them as means for exciting the 
animal mind and the purer blood, it on no account follows 
them as ends. Persons of this cast consider the arts and 
sciences only as aids to wisdom, and learn them as helps to 
its attainment, not that they may be reputed wise for possess- 
ing them. They modestly restrain all tendency to inflated 
ideas of themselves, knowing that the sciences are an ocean, 
of which they can catch but a few drops. They look on no 
one with a scornful brow, or a supercilious air, nor arrogate 
any praise to themselves. They ascribe all to the Deity, and 
regard Him as the source from which all true wisdom de- 
scends. In the promotion of His glory they place the end 
and object of their own" (p. 9). 

Remarking now how sensual and worldly cares impair this 
noble faculty, he says, " Nothing superinduces more darkness 



I38 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

on the human mind than the interference of its own fancied 
providence in matters that properly belong to the Divine 
Providence." And then he goes on to say, still as from 
experience, — 

"This faculty, however, is chiefly impaired by the thirst for 
glory and the love of self. I know not what darkness over- 
spreads the rational faculties when the mind begins to swell 
with pride, or when our intuition of objects calls up in the 
objects themselves the image and glory of our own selfhood. 
It is like pouring a liquor upon some exquisite wine, which 
throws it into a froth, sullies its purity, and clouds its trans- 
lucence. It is as if the animal spirits were stirred into waves, 
and a tempest drove the grosser blood into insurgent motion, 
by which the organs of internal sensation or perception be- 
coming swollen, the powers of thought are dulled, and the 
whole scene of action in their theatre changed. In those 
who experience these disorderly states, the rational faculty is 
crippled and brought to a standstill ; or rather its movements 
become retrograde instead of progressive. A limit is put to 
its operations, which its possessor imagines to be the limit of 
all human capacity, because he himself is unable to overstep 
it. He sees little or nothing in the most studied researches of 
others, but everything — oh, how vain-glorious ! — in his own. 
Nor can he return to correct conceptions, until his elated 
thoughts have subsided to their proper level. 'There are 
many,' says Seneca, 'who might have attained to wisdom, 
had they not fancied they had attained it already.' The 
Muses love a tranquil mind ; and there is nothing but humility, 
a contempt of self, and a simple love of truth, that can pre- 
vent or remedy the evils we have described. 

" But how often does a man labor in vain to divest himself 
of his own nature ! How often, when ignorant or unmindful 
of the love that creeps upon him, will he betray a partiality to 
himself and the offspring of his own genius ! If an author, 
therefore, desires that his studies should give birth to any- 
thing of sterling value, let him be advised, when he has com- 



ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 139 

mitted to paper what he considers to be of particular merit 
and is fond of frequently perusing, to lay it aside for a while, 
and after the lapse of months to return to it as to something 
he had forgotten, and as the production not of himself but of 
some other writer. Let him repeat this practice three or four 
times in the year. . . . Should his writings then often raise 
a blush upon his countenance, should he no longer feel an 
overweening confidence with regard to the lines which had 
received the latest polish from his hands, let him be assured 
that he has made some little progress in wisdom" (p. n). 

After commending the ancients for their wisdom in the 
study of the principles of things, and again those of his own 
and previous times for accumulating experience, he says, — 

"Thus does it seem to be the will of that Providence 
which rules all earthly affairs, that the one state should be 
succeeded by the other : that the parents should instruct the 
children ; and that the ancients should incite their posterity 
to the acquisition of the experimental knowledge by which 
their contemplative sciences may be confirmed ; and in like 
manner that we of the present age should stimulate the gen- 
erations that follow us to work again and again in the mines 
of the same experience, so that they, in their turn, may attain 
to a deeper insight and a further progress ; in fine, that vari- 
ous ages should cultivate various kinds of learning, in order, 
as it would appear, that the sciences may at last arrive at 
their destined perfection" (p. 13). 

Referring to the stores of experimental knowledge now 
collected, he concludes, — 

"And the time is at hand when we may quit the harbor 
and sail for the open sea. The materials are ready ; shall we 
not build the edifice? The harvest is waiting; shall we not 
put in the sickle ? The produce of the garden is rife and 
ripe; shall we fail to collect it for use? Let us enjoy the 
provided banquet ; that is to say, from the experience with 
which we are enriched, let us elicit wisdom. . . . But to 
launch out into this field is like embarking on a shoreless 



I40 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

ocean that environs the world. It is easy to quit the land, or 
to loose the horses from the starting-post ; but to attain the 
end or reach the goal is a labor for Hercules. Nevertheless 
we are bound to attempt the abyss, though as yet we must 
needs proceed like young birds that, with the feeble strokes 
of their new-fledged wings, first essay their strength, and from 
their nests try the air, the new world into which they are to 
enter" (p. 14). 

Entering forthwith on his task, he adopts the following 
method. At the beginning of each chapter he places a 
collection of important observations concerning its subject, 
drawn from various authors. Next he compactly states his 
induction from these premises, as to the constitution and use 
of the substance or organ in the human frame. And then, 
clause by clause, he repeats this induction, explaining and 
confirming each in detail. 

In the Economy of the Animal Kingdom Swedenborg 
takes a grand step towards his goal ; but it is, as we have 
said and as he premised, a tentative step, trying his wings, 
and involving some of the errors of which he warned the 
inexperienced. It is invaluable to us as marking the manner 
and extent of his progress ; but its instructiveness in other 
respects is in a measure superseded by the author's second, 
more valuable essay, which soon followed. That he did not 
expect from contemporaries much recognition of these labors 
— at some variance with the scientific, experimental tendency 
of their time, and not less as yet with that of our own — 
is evident from the motto which he prefixed, from Seneca : 
"Paucis natus est, qui populum setatis suae cogitat. Multa 
annorum millia, multa populorum supervenient: ad ilia respice, 
etiamsi omnibus tecum viventibus silentium. . . . [aliqua causa] 
indixerit : venient qui sine offensa, sine gratia judicent." 1 

1 " He is born to serve but few, who thinks of the people of his own age. 
Many thousands of years, many generations of men are yet to come : look to 
these, though for some cause silence has been imposed on all of your own day ; 
there will come those who may judge without offence and without favor." 



RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. 



I 4 I 



And again he says, in Part Second, perhaps a little self- 
confidently, — 

" Of what consequence is it to me that I should persuade 
any one to embrace my opinions ? Let his own reason per- 
suade him. I do not undertake this work for the sake of 
honor or emolument, — both of which I shun rather than 
seek, because they disquiet the mind, and because I am con- 
tent with my lot, — but for the sake of the truth, which alone 
is immortal, and has its portion in the most perfect order of 
nature ; hence only in the series of ends of the universe from 
the first to the last, which is the glory of God ; which ends 
He promotes. Thus I surely know Who it is that must 
reward me" (vol. ii. p. 210). 

At the conclusion of Part First, Swedenborg gives a chap- 
ter which he styles "An Introduction to Rational Psychology," 
regarding this as " the first and last of those sciences which 
lead to the knowledge of the animal economy." "But 
whereas the soul," he goes on to say, "lives withdrawn so far 
within that she cannot be exposed to view until the coverings 
under which she is hidden are unfolded and removed in 
order, — it hence becomes necessary that we ascend to her by 
the same steps or degrees and the same ladder by which her 
nature, in the formation of the things of her kingdom, de- 
scends into her body. By way therefore of an Introduction 
to Rational Psychology, I will premise the Doctrine of Series 
and Degrees, — a doctrine of which, in the preceding chap- 
ters, I have made such frequent mention, the design of which 
is to teach the nature of order and its rules as observed and 
prescribed in the succession of things. ... As often as Na- 
ture betakes herself upwards from visible phenomena, or, in 
other words, withdraws herself inwards, she instantly as it 
were disappears, while no one knows what is become of her, 
or whither she is gone j so that it is necessary to take science 
as a guide to attend us in pursuing her steps. Without a 
guide of this kind, moreover, we shall have a tendency to fall 
into various premature opinions ; we shall be apt to think, for 



142 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

instance, that the soul, either from principles proper to her- 
self or from such as are above herself, flows immediately into 
the effects of her own body ; whence it necessarily follows 
that the communication of operations between the soul and 
the body must be explained either by Physical Influx [the 
doctrine of the Aristotelians] , or by Occasional Causes [the 
doctrine of Descartes] ; or, if by neither of these, a third is 
assumed as the only alternative, namely, that of Pre-established 
Harmony [the doctrine of Leibnitz] . 1 Thus the one or other 
system flows as a consequence from our want of knowledge 
respecting the subordination of things, and the connection 
of things subordinate. . . . But whereas all things in succeed- 
ing each other follow one another in order, and whereas in 
the whole circle of things, from first to last, there is not a 
single one which is altogether unconnected or detached from 
the rest, — I am compelled, as I said, previous to developing 
the subject of Rational Psychology, to take into considera- 
tion this doctrine concerning order and connection, so re- 
markably conspicuous in the animal kingdom" (vol. ii. p. i). 
To attempt to follow our author's reasoning, or even to 
give a full statement of his conclusions, would take us too far. 
The scope of his plan we see to be transcendent, — being 
nothing less than to determine the order and modes of con- 
nection of all things in series from their primal cause, the 
Deity. And two remarkable features of his doctrine, gained 
for himself by study of the human system, in connection with 
his previous study into the composition of matter, are of the 
utmost importance in themselves and in furnishing a founda- 
tion for his later teachings. The one is the connection of 
things interior, prior, and superior with analogous things, 
exterior, posterior, and inferior, by perfect adaptation and 
correspondence, and by relation of cause and effect, — a 

1 It is Aristotle, " the Gentile," that Swedenborg most cites in these re- 
searches, though occasionally referring to the Christian Fathers, to Grotius, 
" the Christian philosopher," and to Descartes, Leibnitz, Wolff, and Locke's 
" golden essay." 



ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 143 

doctrine which he afterwards termed that of "discrete de- 
grees." The other is the control, in being the instant source 
of all life and power, which by this doctrine rests in the 
Deity, through intermediates, over every atom of His uni- 
verse. These things we shall find him treating again, under 
higher light, and without feeling the need which he now 
feels of a "mathematical science of universals," which by 
a language of its own may express things inexpressible by 
ordinary language. 

The first chapter of Part Second of the Econo?ny of the 
Animal Kingdom is devoted to the motion of the brain, the 
second to the cortical substance of the brain, and the third 
to the human soul. Confessing the difficulties in the search 
for the soul and his frequent disappointments, he says, — 

" At length I awoke, as from a deep sleep, when I discov- 
ered that nothing is farther removed from the human under- 
standing than what at the same time is really present to it ; 
and that nothing is more present to it than what is universal, 
prior, and superior ; since this enters into every particular, 
and into everything posterior and inferior. What is more 
omnipresent than the Deity, — in Him we live and move and 
have our being, — and yet what is more remote from the 
sphere of the understanding? . . . 

"The more any one is perfected in judgment, and the 
better he discerns the distinctions of things, the more clearly 
will he perceive that there is an order in things, that there are 
degrees of order, and that it is by these alone he can pro- 
gress, and this step by step, from the lowest sphere to the 
highest, or from the outermost to the innermost. For as 
often as Nature ascends away from external phenomena, or 
betakes herself inwards, she seems to have separated from us, 
and to have left us altogether in the dark as to what direc- 
tion she has taken. We have need, therefore, of some science 
to serve as our guide in tracing out her steps, — to arrange all 
things into series, to distinguish these series into degrees, 
and to contemplate the order of each tiling in the order of 



144 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

the whole. The science which does this I call the Doctrine 
of Series and Degrees, or the Doctrine of Order, . . . [which] 
teaches the distinction and relation between things superior 
and inferior, or prior and posterior. . . . 

" I am strongly persuaded that the essence and nature of 
the soul, its influx into the body, and the reciprocal action 
of the body can never come to demonstration without these 
doctrines, combined with a knowledge of anatomy, pathology, 
and psychology ; nay, even of physics, and especially of the 
auras of the world. . . . This and no other is the reason 
that with diligent study and intense application I have in- 
vestigated the anatomy of the body, and principally the 
human, so far as it is known from experience ; and that I 
have followed the anatomy of all its parts, in the same 
manner as I have here investigated the cortical substance" 
(vol. ii. p. 202). 

This treatise on the soul is an attempt at what was fore- 
shadowed in the essay already cited. It is a mine of beauti- 
ful thoughts, and leads the mind up to the highest aspect of 
its subject. 1 Yet the author's view is not in full accordance 
with that found in his later works. The soul is to him a most 
subtile, most living fluid, composed of the first element created 
by its Maker, and vivified by Him. But though its form is 
"the form of forms," it is conceived only vaguely, and gives 
the reader no impression of a substantial form. More satis- 
factory, because within the reach of anatomical research, is 
his idea of the constant flow of this living essence into the 
inmost fibres of the body, as their inspiring and controlling 
life. We pass reluctantly over many pages that we would 

1 S. T. Coleridge notes, on reading the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, — 
" I remember nothing in Lord Bacon superior, few passages equal, either in 
depth of thought, or in richness, dignity, and felicity of diction, or in the weighti- 
ness of the truths contained." — Literary Remains, May 27, 1827. Dr. Spurgin, 
formerly President of the Royal College of Physicians in London, declared the 
part on the Soul " a production unparalleled for excellence in the whole com- 
pass of human philosophy." — Wisdom, Intelligence, and Science, the True 
Characteristics of Emanuel Swedenborg. 



THE CITY OF GOD. I45 

like to quote, and conclude our extracts from the Economy of 
the Animal Kingdom with Swedenborg's own striking conclu- 
sion. Having shown that the final end can be no other than 
the existence of a society of souls, " in which the end of cre- 
ation may be regarded by God, and by which God may be 
regarded as the end of ends," he says, — 

" If there be a society of souls, must not the City of God 
on the universal earth be the seminary of it ? The most uni- 
versal law of its citizens is, that they love their neighbor as 
themselves, and God more than themselves. All other things 
are means, and are good in proportion as they lead directly 
to this end. Now, as everything in the universe is created 
as a means to this end, it follows that the application of the 
means, and a true regard of the end in the means, are the 
sote constituents of a citizen [of the Holy City]. The Holy 
Scripture is the code of rules for obtaining the end by the 
means. These rules are not so dark or obscure as the philos- 
ophy of the mind and the love of self and of the world would 
make them ; nor so deep and hidden but that any sincere soul, 
which permits the Spirit of God to govern it, may draw them 
from this pure fountain, — pure enough for the use and service 
of the members of the City of God all over the world, — with- 
out violating any form of ecclesiastical government. It is 
foretold that the kingdom of God shall come ; that at last the 
guests shall be assembled at the marriage supper ; that the 
wolf shall lie down with the lamb, the leopard with the kid, 
the lion with the ox ; that the young child shall play with the 
asp; that the mountain of God shall rise above all other 
mountains, and that the Gentile and the stranger shall come 
to it to pay their worship. But see the Second Epistle of Paul 
to Timothy, chap. iii. 1-10 ; and the Acts of the Apostles, 
chap. xvii. 18-34." 

"Whoever will turn to these chapters and read them care- 
fully, in connection with these sentences of our author, will 
be impressed with the evidence that Swedenborg saw the time 
to be at hand for our Lord's promised coming in His Holy 

10 



I46 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

City, and that he desired nothing more than that his own 
labors might conduce to that end, yet with clear discernment 
that the real means lay in the Holy Scriptures, of which he 
stood in awe. Theology was not yet his province ; and when 
he ventured an opinion on one of its topics, he generally 
referred to the Fathers for support. Yet he could not refrain 
from writing occasionally on points upon which new light 
came to him. While he had still the Economy of the Animal 
Kingdom in hand, he wrote a brief essay on "Faith and 
Good Works," 1 beginning thus : — 

" There can be no doubt that it is faith which saves, and 
not works separate from faith ; but where there is a possi- 
bility of doing good works, the question is, whether faith will 
save without them, according to the dogma of the Lutherans. 
We reply that the affirmative seems compatible neither with 
the Divine word of revelation, nor with human reason ; both 
of which lead rather to the conclusion that faith without 
works is a nullity, and were it anything, would condemn, not 
save" (p. 9). 

Next, he shows abundantly from Scripture the inculcation 
of love and charity. " Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, 
says that // is faith which saves, but not action, — meaning 
thereby not action without faith ; but Luther, in his transla- 
tion of the Bible, has added to the words of the apostle, faith 
'alone,' though the latter word is not to be found in the sacred 
text ; and I believe that Luther never committed a greater 
sin than when he made this interpolation ; but God be the 
judge" 2 (p. 10). 

1 Posthumous Tracts, London, 1847. 

2 By inadvertence Swedenborg wrote as Luther's interpolation, "without 
works." But the real interpolation is the German word allcin, "alone," or 
sola, as Luther himself gave it in Latin. That this was not put in by inad- 
vertence on Luther's part appears from his defiant words sent to the Pope : 
'• Should the Pope give himself any useless annoyance about the word sola, 
you may promptly reply, It is the will of Dr. Martin Luther that it should be so." 
— Alzog : Univ. Church History, Am. ed. iii. 27. In a later work Sweden- 
borg states that he heard Luther in the other life confessing with regret that he 
established the doctrine of faith alone against the warning of an angel of the Lord, 
for the sake of more completely separating from the Roman Church. (D. P. 258.) 



PLAN OF STUDY. 147 

From philosophy he now shows that action is from the 
will, and that faith is not a mere knowledge, but a living 
principle implanted by the grace of God in the will ; whence 
action from the will becomes active faith. Illustrating this in 
various ways, he concludes, — 

"That there is no love to God if there be none to the 
neighbor ; or that there is no faith, if there be no works ; . . . 
therefore faith without works is a phrase involving a contra- 
diction" (p. 15). 

With some reluctance, apparently, he admits that "in the 
future life love to God may be said to exist without the per- 
formance of the duties of love to the neighbor," inasmuch as 
all the means of " doing the duties of love to the neighbor are 
taken away, because the body, which is the subject of action, 
is extinct." We shall be interested presently in seeing how 
long this notion clung to him, of the non-substantiality of the 
spiritual existence. 

By no means content with what he had already accom- 
plished, Swedenborg, on the completion of the parts of the 
Economy of the Animal Kingdom published in 1 740 and 
1 741, recommenced the study of the brain from the skull, 
and traversed the whole ground again and again, adhering 
for a while to the following plan : — 

"Man proposes : God disposes. 

"1740. The brain. 

"1741. The muscles, glands, and nerves. 
" 1742. The eye, ear, tongue, windpipe, and lungs. 
"1743. The remaining members or viscera of the body. 
" 1 744. The members devoted to generation. 
"1745. The causes of disease. 

"1746. The passions and affections of the will \animus\ 
and of the mind [mens~\. 

"1747. The City of God. [Civitas Dci\" 

Interspersed with manuscripts of this period on these sub- 
jects are found notes on "(1) Correspondence by Harmony; 



I48 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

(2) Correspondence by Parables ; (3) Correspondence by 
Types ; (4) Correspondence by Fables and Dreams ; (5) 
Correspondence between Human and Divine Actions ; (6) 
Representation in Oracles; (7) Explanation of the Sacred 
Scripture : " the illustrations throughout being taken from 
Scripture. These same ideas are found again in a concise 
form, prepared as for publication, in forty-eight pages, entitled 
"A Hieroglyphic Key to Natural and Spiritual Mysteries, by 
Way of Representations and Correspondences." From this 
little treatise, printed from the author's manuscript in 1784, 
we quote the following 

"Rules. — ( 1 ) The spiritual world is the region of antitypes 
or exemplars ; the animal kingdom is the sphere of images 
and types ; nature is the realm of shadows or resemblances. 
(2) There are many species of representations or correspond- 
ences. The first species may be termed harmonic corre- 
spondence, and is exemplified by the relation subsisting be- 
tween light, intelligence, and wisdom ; between effort and 
will ; between modification, sensation, imagination, etc. ; also 
between the images of vision, ideas, and thirdly, reasons ; 
which are mutual correspondents, representing terms in a 
successive analogy or proportion. The second species is 
allegorical correspondence, and is constituted of similes, or 
similitudes. Thus it is usual to explain spiritual things in a 
natural manner, for all spiritual words are occult qualities : 
this species of correspondence is of frequent occurrence in 
the Holy Scripture. (3) The third species is typical corre- 
spondence, and is effected by shadows, or semblances, — as 
in the Jewish Church, which shadowed forth Christ and the 
Christian Church, which latter again represented the kingdom 
of God and the society of heaven. The fourth is fabulous 
correspondence, which species was in vogue among the an- 
cients, who wrapped up the deeds of their heroes in fabulous 
narrations ; examples of which are found in the representa- 
tions of the poets, and in those we see in dreams. (4) There 
is reason to believe that the whole world is absolutely full of 



RETURN TO THE ROVAL COLLEGE. 1 49 

types, albeit we know so few of them ; for the present ever 
involves the future, and contingencies occur in a certain 
order and chain, inasmuch as there is undeviating constancy 
in the tenor and influence of Divine Providence. (5) It is 
good to interpret the Holy Scripture on these principles, for 
the Spirit speaks spiritually as well as naturally." 

The examples given are so simple and obvious that we will 
not take space to quote any of them. But the author's seiz- 
ing hold of the principle of correspondence, especially as the 
means of interpreting Scripture, with his beginning of a col- 
lection of materials for the purpose, is highly significant of his 
preparation for the work that was to come. The important 
thing, however, for us now to observe is the steady advance 
of his mind, by mathematical, analytical, rational investiga- 
tion, through the effects of this world to their laws, to their 
proximate causes, and thus to their Final Cause, — always 
with reverence for Revelation and desire to be in accordance 
therewith, but not as yet taking it for Guide. 

From November, 1 740, when Swedenborg returned home 
after publishing the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, for two 
years and a half, till the middle of June, 1743, the records of 
the Royal College of Mines show his regular attendance at its 
sessions, with but occasional absences from illness, or from 
attendance at sessions of the Diet, or on commissions of the 
College. That he was, however, still devoting his leisure 
time to the study of the body and soul, and not, as he had 
expected, to the "Mineral Kingdom," we may learn from the 
following letter addressed by him to the Royal College of 
Mines, June 17, 1743 : — 

" Most well-born Baron and President, and also well-born 
and esteemed Councillors of Mines and Assessors, — A few 
months ago I applied most humbly to his Royal Majesty for 
gracious leave of absence, to make a journey abroad on my 
own resources for the purpose of seeing through the press a 
work which is the continuation and end of one which had 



150 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

been begun and promised ; when I received orally the gra- 
cious answer through Mr. Boneauschold, the Secretary of 
State, that my application had been graciously entertained, 
but that on a point of order it ought to be announced first to 
the College. Now, as ever since my return I have in ad- 
dition to my official duties constantly labored to accomplish 
this work, and as I have now completed it so far that, after 
collecting some necessary information in the libraries abroad, 
I shall be able to publish it at once and thus fulfil what I 
have promised, and what is, I find, desired by many abroad, — 
I therefore entreat the honorable Royal College in the most 
humble manner that it kindly accede to my wishes. As far as 
my individual preference and pleasure are concerned, I can 
assure you that I should a thousand times prefer to stay at 
home in my native country, where it would be a pleasure to 
me to serve in so illustrious a College, and to contribute my 
own small share to the public good ; at the same time to 
watch opportunities for improving my condition and attend to 
the little property I have acquired, and thus live at home and 
have pleasant times, which, as long as my health and means 
with God's help continue, nothing would disturb, — than to 
travel abroad, exposing myself, at my own by no means in- 
considerable expense, to danger and vexation, especially in 
these unquiet times, and undergoing severe brain-work and 
other hard labor, with the probability of meeting in the end 
with more unfavorable than favorable judgments. But, not- 
withstanding all this, I am influenced interiorly by the desire 
and longing to produce during my lifetime something real, 
which may be of use in the general scientific world and also 
to posterity, and in this way to be useful to and even to please 
my native country ; and, if my wishes are realized, to obtain 
honor for it. But if I any longer delay the carrying out of 
my design, I might as well give it up altogether, as far as the 
increase in honor and the decrease of my own interest in the 
work are concerned. All this depends entirely upon the most 
honorable Royal College's advocating my well-meant pur- 



NEW LEAVE OF ABSENCE. 



151 



pose with his Majesty, by expressing its consent and approval 
with regard to my intended journey ; of which I entertain the 
less doubt, as the honorable Royal College has always been 
inclined to promote useful designs, and especially as I have 
never yet asked, nor intend to ask, anything from the public 
in return for all the trouble and the great expenses I am in- 
curring, but on the contrary, for the sake of promoting this 
well-meant purpose, have given up of my own accord half of 
my salary, and consequently an income that already amounts 
to twelve thousand six hundred dalers in copper, and as I am 
willing to leave this at your disposal on the same terms as 
before, so that during my absence nothing may be neglected 
in the Royal College on my account. With regard to the 
time that will be required, I cannot determine anything, in- 
asmuch as the work which will be published will amount to 
about five hundred sheets, and the despatch with which this 
can be done will depend on the publisher and the printer ; 
but I promise that on my own part the most indefatigable 
industry shall be applied ; nay, I am willing, if it is desired, 
to keep a journal of my work, and to show that no time is 
wasted. Moreover, it is my own chief desire to bring this 
work to a close, and to return to my country, to my orifice, 
and to my property, where I shall in tranquillity and ease 
continue my larger work, the Rcgnum Minerale, and thus be 
of actual use to the public at large in those matters which 
properly belong to the Royal College. 

" I remain, and shall continue to remain, with profound re- 
spect, most well-born Baron and President, and most honor- 
able Royal College, your most humble servant, 

" Eman. Swedexborg." 

The Royal College of Mines commended to King Frederic 
the Assessor's request, and on the 4th of July it was graciously 
granted. Until July 21st Swedenborg continued in attend- 
ance on his duties, but on that day left Stockholm, arriving at 
Ystad on the 2 7th. On the 6th of August he was at Stralsund, 



152 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

examining the fortifications and the water-works. On the 1 2th 
he was at Hamburg, and was presented to his Royal Highness 
Adolphus Frederic, to whom he submitted the contents of 
the book he was about to have printed, and showed reviews 
of his former work. He had at this time accumulated a large 
pile of manuscript on the anatomy of the human body and 
other subjects, including, in addition to what he was about to 
publish as The Animal Kingdom, essays on the " Declination 
of the Magnetic Needle," "Corpuscular Philosophy," "Uni- 
versal Philosophy," "The Bones of the Head," "The Red 
Blood," "The Muscles of the Face," "The Animal Spirit," 
"Sensation," "Action," "Common Sense," "The Origin 
and Propagation of the Soul," and several others, together 
with six hundred and thirty-six pages on the " Anatomy of 
the Brain," and six hundred on " Rational Psychology." 

With new views opening to him on so many subjects, or 
on so many branches leading up to the great subject he had 
in ultimate contemplation, — the soul and its relation to its 
Creator, — it is not strange that in details our author's plans 
were constantly changing. Among his manuscripts are found 
half-a-dozen different titles for what was finally published as 
the Economy of the Animal Kingdom. For the work now in 
hand, The Animal Kingdom, he at one time proposed no 
less than seventeen parts, of which six related to the soul. 
The materials for the whole seventeen were in preparation, and 
to a great extent already written out ; but during the autumn 
months of 1 743, spent mostly in the libraries of Amsterdam 
and Leyden, they became so voluminous that he published at 
this time only the first two. These made a handsome thick 
quarto volume, published at the Hague in 1744. A third 
part was published the next year at London, and this, for 
reasons we shall presently see, was the last of the work pub- 
lished by the author. 

The Animal Kingdom ["Regnum Animale"] was, in a 
sort, a continuation of the previous work, the Economy of the 
Animal Kingdom, but treated in a somewhat different man- 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



53 



ner. We seem to detect in it a somewhat less confident tone, 
more patience, and greater contentment with quietly and 
closely observing the immediate uses of the several parts of 
the body, while trusting that he shall be led in the end to that 
of which he is in search. 

"Not very long since," he says in his Prologue, "I pub- 
lished the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, . . . and before 
traversing the whole field in detail, I made a rapid passage to 
the soul and put forth an essay respecting it. But on con- 
sidering the matter more deeply, I found that I had directed 
my course thither both too hastily and too fast, — after hav- 
ing explored the blood only and its peculiar organs. I took 
the step impelled by an ardent desire for knowledge." 

Now he proposes to traverse the whole kingdom of the 
body, hoping that, by bending his course inwards continually, 
he may open all the doors that lead to her and at length, by 
the Divine permission, contemplate the soul herself. But he 
supposes the objection made " that all those things which 
transcend our present state, are matters for faith and not for 
intellect ; " that the intellect should be " contented with this 
its lot, and not aspire to higher things, which, inasmuch as 
they are sanctuaries and matters of Revelation, exist to faith 
only. . . . Where there is faith, what need is there of demon- 
stration? . . . Faith is above all demonstration, because it is 
above all the philosophy of the human mind." His reply 
is, " I grant this ; nor would I persuade any one who compre- 
hends these high truths by faith, to attempt to comprehend 
them by his intellect : let him abstain from my books. Whoso 
believes Revelation implicitly, without consulting the intellect, 
is the happiest of mortals, the nearest to heaven, and at once 
a native of both worlds. But these pages of mine are 
written with a view to those only who never believe anything 
but what they can receive with the intellect ; consequently 
who boldly invalidate and are fain to deny the existence 
of all supereminent things, sublimer than themselves, — as the 
soul itself, and what follows therefrom : its life, immortality, 



154 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

heaven, etc. . . . Consequently they honor and worship nature, 
the world, and themselves ; in other respects they compare 
themselves to brutes, and think that they shall die in the same 
manner as brutes, and their souls exhale and evaporate : thus 
they rush fearlessly into wickedness. For these persons only 
I am anxious ; and, as I said before, for them I indite, and 
to them I dedicate my work. For when I shall have demon- 
strated truths themselves by the analytic method, I hope 
that those debasing shadows, or material clouds, which darken 
the sacred temple of the mind will be dispersed ; and that 
thus at last, under the favor of God, who is the Sun of Wis- 
dom, an access will be opened and a way laid down to faith. 
My ardent desire and zeal for this end is what urges and ani- 
mates me " (Prologue to part i. pp. 12-15). 

Swedenborg's purpose, and the work given him to do, may 
be found further illustrated in the following passages from the 
Epilogue to Part Second of The Animal Kingdojn : — 

"The lungs in the first flower and golden age of their life, 
or when the body and the thorax were enveloped and con- 
fined by manifold swathings in the mother's womb, were un- 
able as yet to expand,. still less to open the mouth of their 
larynx ; but together with the brains, the heart, and the mem- 
bers attendant thereupon, they passed and beguiled their day, 
which was nine months long, in the deepest peace, and as it 
were in the temple of concord. At this time the soul, under 
the auspices of the Supreme Mind, by means of the brains 
and their fibres, and in the ultimate sphere by means of 
the heart and its vessels, ruled and governed the helm of the 
kingdom ; it was the only principle of all motions : the de- 
terminations from this principle flowed through adopted and 
organically constructed forms, serving in orderly sequence 
and manifold succession as first, intermediate, and ultimate 
causes ; hence all efforts, forces, actions, and modes thereof, 
agreeably to the order appointed by nature, proceeded con- 
stantly from the first spheres to the last, or from the innermost 
to the outermost. Thus the body was the body of its soul, 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. I 55 

and the subject of the auspices of the Supreme Mind. But 
when the period of these destinies had passed away, and the 
manikin, bursting the swathings and bars of the womb, rushed 
forth upon the theatre of the great world, the state of life 
was instantly changed, and the hinges of the determinations, 
forces, and motions were inverted and bent backward against 
the order of the former life ; namely, from the outermost 
spheres to the innermost, or from the body and its powers 
inwards, towards the proximate and immediate powers of the 
principle or soul. In order that, after this inversion, the last 
causes might take the first place, the lungs were opened ; the 
lowest atmosphere of the world was admitted through the 
nostrils and the larynx into the trachea and the bronchial 
pipes ; the muscles of the thorax were unfolded ; the ribs, 
with the vertebrae and sternum, were moved from their places 
to and fro ; and the reciprocal actions proceeding from these 
ultimate causes, or from the body, were transferred through 
the diaphragm, the pleura, and the mediastinum, into the in- 
nermost sphere of the lungs, whither also the atmosphere 
was transferred through the larynx. On the instant the blood 
also, which rushed from the vence cavce into the right auricle 
and cavern of the heart, began to be the proximate cause of 
the motions or pulses, even through the whole arterial sys- 
tem ; the proximate cause having previously been the fibre 
and the spirit of the fibre. At the same time the organs of 
the five senses were opened, to take up on the first threshold 
the images, tones, forms, and all the play and manifestation 
of the circumambient world, and convey them inwards even 
to the soul. Thus we entered, or rather fell, from the highest 
life into the lowest, the life of the body, and of the world. 

" Now, when the body undertook to manage the reins 
which the soul relinquished ; when the machine was so com- 
pletely inverted that the powers flowed and rolled contrari- 
wise, or upwards instead of downwards, — then, in order that 
the machine itself might not be prostrated and perish by its 
forces, and in order that the life that was now transferred to 



156 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

the body might not be dissipated and come to an end, it was 
provided and appointed that the lungs should perform a 
mediatorial office between the soul and the body ; wherefore, 
to bring them into concord, the ordinances that follow were 
solemnly decreed." 

Here follow eight laws governing the reciprocal action of 
the lungs and of the heart and brains, at too great length for 
our space. Then he continues : — 

"Since, therefore, we are inaugurated into this life, that 
tends backwards from the last stages of the course to the first, 
the consequence is that we are born in the densest obscurity, 
ignorant of all things, and the merest of infants \ for the forces 
of the body, which are now the first causes, feel nothing of 
themselves. Thus we live but little, if at all, in early infancy, 
for to feel is to live : yet this very life increases, grows, and 
approximates to perfection, as age advances." 

Describing then how sensations become, by effort from 
within, first images of sense, then sensual ideas, then imagina- 
tive and at last intellectual ideas, so that, by means of the 
senses, we are led from the darkness of ignorance more or 
less into the light of knowledge, he says, — 

" There is in the cerebrum an eminent sensorium, and inti- 
mate recesses therein, whither these sensual rays of the body 
ascend, and where they can mount no further : there the soul 
resides, clad in the noblest garment of organization, and sits to 
meet the ideas emerging thither, and receives them as guests. 
This high and noble place is the innermost sensorium ; and 
it is the boundary at which the ascent of the life of the body 
ceases, and the boundary from which that of the soul, con- 
sidered as a spiritual essence, begins. Here especially the 
soul inspires her power, and communicates the faculty where- 
by images become ideas." 

But to acquire the power of thinking clearly from the soul, 
and to distinguish what is in harmony with her nature, thus 
with real truth, there is need of abundant store of observa- 
tion, or scientific fact, an assiduous training of the faculties, 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. I 57 

and a " constant exercise of the gjft itself, till it becomes a 
part of our nature. Above all things we must aim by educa- 
tion to become thoroughly imbued with the power of recall- 
ing the rational mind from the senses and the animal mind ; 
in short, from cares, from the lusts of the body, the allure- 
ments of the world, and thus as it were from our lower 
selves. ... By these means we mount to our higher mind, 
or to the soul, which then becomes accessible and infuses 
power." 

" If we wish," says our author, "to invite real truths, 
whether natural, or moral, or spiritual (for they all make com- 
mon cause by means of correspondence and representation), 
into the sphere of our rational minds, it is necessary that we 
extinguish the impure fires of the body, and thereby our own 
delusive lights, and submit and allow our minds, unmolested 
by the influences of the body, to be illuminated with the rays 
of the spiritual power : then for the first time truths flow in ; 
for they all emanate from that power as their peculiar foun- 
tain. Nor when they are present, are there wanting a mul- 
titude of signs by which they attest themselves ; namely, the 
varied forms of sweetness and delight attendant upon truth 
attained, and affecting the mind as the enjoyments that result 
from the harmonies of external objects affect the lower and 
sensitive faculties of the body : for as soon as ever a truth 
shines forth, such a mind exults and rejoices ; and this joy is 
the ground of its first assent, and of its first delighted smile ; 
but the actual confirmation of the truth proceeds from its ac- 
cordance with numerous reasons, confirmed by experience by 
means of the sciences, and each point of which accordance 
receives a similar assent, — the mind going onwards the while, 
with assiduous attention and pains, by the analytic way, or 
from effects to causes. In addition to these delights there are 
still more universal signs, — as the desire and the passion for 
attaining truth, and the love of the truth attained, not for the 
sake of our own advantage, but for that of the advantage of 
human society j and neither for the glory of ourselves or of 



I58 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

society, but of the Supr^ae Divinity alone. This is the only 
way to truths : other things as means, which are infinite, God 
Omnipotent provides." 

Inquiring, then, into the ends, or purposes of the provision 
by which it is ordained that man should ascend from lowest 
and outermost to highest and innermost, he unfolds them 
comprehensively, concluding with these, — "that in this ulti- 
mate circle of nature we may receive the wonders of the 
world, and as we ascend the steps and ladders of intelligence 
receive still greater wonders, in all their significance and with 
full vision ; and that at length we may comprehend by faith 
those profound miracles that cannot be comprehended by the 
intellect ; and from all these things, in the deep hush of awe 
and amazement, venerate and adore the omnipotence and 
providence of the Supreme Creator ; and thus, in the con- 
templation of Him, regard as vanity everything that we leave 
behind us. . . . The last end, which also is the first, is that 
our minds, at length become forms of intelligence and inno- 
cence, may constitute a spiritual heaven, a kingdom of God, 
or a holy society, in which the end of creation may be re- 
garded by God, and by which God may be regarded as the 
end of ends. From infinite wisdom, added to equal power, 
and this to equal providence, such perpetual end flows con- 
stantly, from the first end to the last, and from the last to the 
first, through the intermediate ends, that declare the glory of 
the Divinity." To this he adds in a note, "I shall treat of 
these subjects, by the blessing of God, in the last of my 
analytic Parts. But as yet we are dwelling in the mere effects 
of the world, which exhibit the amazing and Divine circle of 
these ends before the contemplation of our very senses" 
(partii. p. 331-366). 

It would be aside from our main duty, were it within our 
compass, to follow our author through his analysis of " the 
mere effects of the world," of the organs of the body, their 
microscopical structure, their inter-relation and function, and 
their correspondential relation with the organs and functions 



THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 159 

of the mind. Something more we shall have to say of these 
studies before we have done ; but what interests us most in 
them now is the Divinely ordered preparation effected by 
them in Swedenborg's own mind, and in the whole circle of 
minds connected with his, — a circle not limited by his vision 
nor by his age, — for comprehending the mysteries of the 
Lord's presence and dealings with men. In view of this we 
do not care to dwell on the scientific value of the works, but 
will simply say that they were based on the investigations of 
the great anatomists of their day ; and that, by the author's 
philosophic informing power, and from his point of view of 
the life inflowing from the soul, the perusal of them is like 
looking with sympathetic penetrating eyes into the living 
body, full of beauty, energy, and motion, — in place of dis- 
secting the cadaver. This is why many secrets of the human 
frame of later discovery are anticipated in these pages, though 
together with them, at least in the earlier "Economy" may 
be found some errors of fact. 

With one more specimen of its style and drift, we must 
conclude our extracts from what was published by our author 
of The Ani7iial Kingdom : — 

" As the blood is continually making its circle of life, that 
is to say, is in a constant revolution of birth and death ; as 
it dies in its old age, and is regenerated or born anew ; and 
as the veins solicitously gather together the whole of its cor- 
poreal part, and the lymphatics of its spirituous part, and 
successively bring it back, refect it with new chyle, and restore 
it to the pure and youthful blood ; and as the kidneys con- 
stantly purge it of impurities, and restore its pure parts to the 
blood, — so likewise man, who lives at once in body and spirit 
while he lives in the blood, must undergo the same fortunes 
generally, and in the progress of his regeneration must daily 
do the like. Such a perpetual symbolical representation is 
there of spiritual life in corporeal life ; as likewise a per- 
petual typical representation of the soul in the body. In 
this consists the searching of the heart and the reins, which 



l60 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

is a thing purely Divine." [Note.] "In our Doctrine of 
Representations and Correspondences, we shall treat of both 
these symbolical and typical representations, and of the as- 
tonishing things which occur, I will not say in the living 
body only, but throughout nature, and which correspond 
so entirely to supreme and spiritual things that one would 
swear that the physical world is purely symbolical of the 
spiritual world, — insomuch that if we choose to express any 
natural truth in physical and definite vocal terms, and to con- 
vert these terms only into the corresponding spiritual terms, 
we shall by this means elicit a spiritual truth or theological 
dogma, in place of the physical truth or precept • although 
no mortal would have predicted that anything of the kind 
could possibly arise by bare literal transposition, inasmuch 
as the one precept, considered separately from the other, 
appears to have absolutely no relation to it. I intend here- 
after to communicate a number of examples of such corre- 
spondences, together with a vocabulary containing the terms 
of spiritual things, as well as of the physical things for which 
they are to be substituted. This symbolism pervades the 
living body ; and I have chosen simply to indicate it here, for 
the purpose of pointing out the spiritual meaning of searching 
the reins" (part i. p. 451). 

Of the principles involved in this treatment of the subject, 
Dr. Wilkinson well says, in the Introductory Remarks to his 
translation of The Animal Kifigdom, — 

"The Doctrine of Series and Degrees, in conjunction with 
that of Correspondence and Representation, teaches that 
there is a universal analogy between all the spheres of crea- 
tion, material, mental, and spiritual ; and also between nature 
and all things in human society. The circulation of uses in 
the body perfectly represents the free intercourse of man with 
man, and the free interchange of commodities between nation 
and nation. The operations that go on in the body analogi- 
cally involve all the departments of human industry ; nay, and 
infinitely more, both in subdivision, unity, and perfection. 



TREATISE ON THE DRAIN. l6l 

There is not an art or trade, whether high or low, so long as 
it be of good use, but the Creator Himself has adopted and 
professed it in the human system. Nay, in the richness of 
His pervading love, the very prerogatives of the mind are 
representatively applicable to the body. End, cause, and 
effect, as existing in Himself, are represented in the latter as 
well as in the former. Liberty and rationality, the universal 
principles of humanity, are transplanted by analogy from the 
mind into the body. It presents an analogon of liberty, in 
that every organ, part, and particle can successfully exercise 
an attraction for those fluids that are adapted to its life and 
uses ; of rationality, in that it acts as though it took cogni- 
zance of the adaptability, and operates upon the materials 
demanded and supplied in such a manner as will best secure 
•the well-being of itself and of the whole system." 

In addition to what Swedenborg himself published of The 
Animal Kingdom, several parts have been published in Ger- 
many and England, from time to time ; and now, with amaz- 
ing industry and much skill, the Rev. R. L. Tafel has deci- 
phered and translated all of the manuscripts left by Sweden- 
borg on the brain. From these, together with some matter 
on the same subject already printed, and copious confirma- 
tory notes drawn from later writers, he has in course of pub- 
lication three thick octavo volumes, constituting a complete 
treatise on the anatomy and functions of the brain, which, 
we have the authority of experts for saying, is full of vital 
suggestion supported by recent researches, so far as these 
extend. 1 Of its theory Dr. Wilkinson says, — 

" Doctrine is the ever-potent father of Swedenborg's the- 
ory, — the doctrine, namely, that there is a God, who is a 
Creator; and that God is the Author of the human soul; 
and that He made the living soul to be creative in its own 
finite sphere ; and further, that the soul, in order to embody 
itself, under God immanent made the brain, which is thus the 

1 The Brain, Considered Anatomically, Physiologically, and Philosophically. 
Vol. i. James Spcirs, London, 1S82. 



1 62 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

anthropoplasm of the human frame upon earth. The brain, 
from its first principles, conceived, through the Divine wisdom 
by the soul in it, all the details of its own form, fitting it to be 
the abode of the mind in all its faculties. . . . The soul also, 
which makes the brain mechanic, inventive, contriving for it- 
self, imprints upon it with the form of motion also the power ; 
and in an order and determination stupendous like the gal- 
axies of heaven, it commands a universal motion as the pulse 
and radiance of a universal life. And as there can be no 
motion without a corresponding and adequate something 
moved, there are fluids which are so eminent and so ordinate 
that they can be embrained and ensouled, and give life to the 
avenues of the brain, to the body and the blood." 

But let us hear Swedenborg himself : — 

"The soul is properly the icniversal essence of its body.. 
The soul is the only thing substantial and essential in its 
body. From it are derived and born all the substances and 
essences which are called composite and corporeal. For what 
can truly be, unless it be from a thing prior, more simple and 
more unique, which is the beginning of the rest ? That which 
gives to others being and existence, must itself be. It can- 
not be produced from modes, accidents, and qualities without 
a subject and form, and consequently without a real essence 
and substance. The soul also is peculiar or proper, and there 
is not one universal soul for all ; so that the soul of one can- 
not belong to the body of another ; for — what is to be de- 
monstrated, namely — the very form of the body is the result 
of its essential determination, or the body itself represents the 
soul as it were in an image. . . . The higher or highest universal 
essence is the soul, the lower is the animal spirit, and the third 
the blood. The highest essence imparts being, the power of 
acting and life to the lower, this imparts the same in a like 
manner to the lowest ; the lowest, consequently, exists and 
subsists from the first by means of the middle. . . . The de- 
terminations of the highest universal essence of the bodily 
system are those fibres which are the simplest of all, and which 



ON THE SOUL. 1(33 

are like rays of the soul, and the first designations of forms. 
The determinations of the lower universal essence are those 
fibres which are derived from the most simple ; but those 
of the lowest are the arterial and venous vessels. As the 
essences, so also the determinations are in turn derived from 
one another, the higher imparting being to the lower. From 
these determinations, or from these determining essences, all 
the organic viscera, and consequently the whole bodily sys- 
tem, is woven and formed " (p. 65). 

" It is the cerebrum through which the intercourse between 
the soul and the body is established ; for it is as it were the link 
and the uniting medium. From what follows, it will appear 
that the soul is in the cerebrum as it were in its heaven and 
Olympus, although it is essentially everywhere, and present in 
every individual part. In the cerebrum, however, is formed 
as it were its court and palace chamber, from which it looks 
around on all things belonging to it, and determines them, 
into act in agreement with its intuition " (p. 67). 

One other section of the manuscript left by Swedeiiborg as 
a part of The Animal Kingdom, under the head of " Rational 
Psychology," l we must not pass without notice. In truth, 
if we should give the substance of it as the climax of our 
author's studies into the nature of man, of his soul, and of its 
relation to the Creator, not a reader but would say, Well 
done, wise and excellent Swedenborg; you have not lived 
and studied in vain. Indeed, we know very well that many 
would praise loudly these essays on the various motives and 
faculties of the body and mind and soul, written in Sweden- 
borg's own name, who feel constrained to be chary of their 
commendation of what he afterwards published as not of his 
own wisdom. But for the same reason that our author him- 
self laid these writings aside, while he devoted all his time 
and means to the publication of what he perceived to be 
from Heaven, we must follow his example and save our 

1 Published in 1849 by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, in its original incomplete form, 
inula- the title of Rcgnum Animalc, pars vii. Dc Aiuma. 



164 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

readers' appetite for the later and better works. We must 
not wait till they have well drunk, even of the pure water of 
the earlier supply, but must hasten to pour out for them this 
same water after it has become wine. We will but give a 
sip, and then pass on. 

"All souls are purely spiritual forms. Thus all minds and 
their loves are purely spiritual, whether they are good or evil ; 
for a spirit, whether good or evil, is still purely spirit, or purely 
mind, and has purely spiritual — that is, universal — loves, in 
which are contained the principles of lower and purely natural 
loves. A good angel, as also an evil angel or devil, is purely 
spirit; and the loves of each are purely spiritual, — but with 
the difference, that, whatever a good spirit loves, the evil spirit 
hates and loves its opposite" (p. 202). 

" The first and supreme love of the spirit or soul, and the 
most universal, is the love of Being above itself, from which 
it has drawn and continually draws its essence ; in which, 
through which, and on account of which it is and lives. This 
love is the first of all, because nothing can exist and subsist 
from itself except God, who exists in Himself, and alone is 
He who is. Because the soul feels this in itself, that supreme 
love is also inborn in it, and thus is the very Divine love 
within us. There is also given a love directly opposite to 
this, though also spiritual and supreme, which is hatred of any 
power or being above itself. This love is called diabolical ; 
from it is known what the quality of good love is, and from 
the good, what the quality of evil love is " (p. 203). 

"The Divine Providence takes especial care that individ- 
uals shall be distinct, one from another, since it is the very 
end of creation that a most perfect society of souls may exist. 
... As, then, no soul is absolutely like another, but some 
difference or diversity of state exists between all, this has not 
obtained merely for the sake of distinguishing one from an- 
other, but to the end that the most perfect form of society 
might exist from the variety. And in such a form there must 
needs be not only a difference among all, but such a differ- 



ON THE SOUL. 165 

ence, or variety, as that all the individuals may come together 
in harmony, so as to form together a society in which nothing 
shall be wanting that is not found in some one. . . . This 
harmonic variety, however, does not consist in the outward 
variety of souls, but in their spiritual variety, of love towards 
God and towards their neighbor ; for the state of the soul 
concerns only its spiritual state, how it may be nearest to its 
God. When any shade of variety is wanting, some place 
in heaven may be said to be as yet vacant ; so that all the 
differences, or varieties, are to be filled up before the form 
can exist in full perfection. 

" But whether there are to be many societies, and, as it 
were, many heavens, of which the universal society will con- 
sist, which is called the kingdom of God, we seem also able to 
conclude ; for every variety, even spiritual, involves an order, 
with subordination and co-ordination. . . . For when the 
form of rule is most perfect, it is of necessity that all societies 
should produce a general harmony together, as the individual 
members produce a particular harmony in each society. 

"This is called the kingdom of God, in heaven, but on 
earth, the seminary of that kingdom, the very city of God, 
which is not joined to any certain religion or church, but is 
distributed through the whole world ; for God elects His 
members out of all, that is, of those who had actually loved 
God above themselves, and their neighbors as themselves. 
For this is the law of all laws : in this culminate all laws, 
Divine and natural; all the rest are but means leading to 
this" (p. 243). 

" Such a society cannot exist without its Head or Prince ; 
that is to say, without Him who has been man, without blame 
and without offence, victor over all affections of the mind, 
virtue itself and piety itself, and the love of God above one's 
self, and the love of the companion and neighbor, and thus 
Divinity in Himself, — in whom the whole society should be 
represented, and through whom the members of the society 
might come to His will. Without such a king of souls, the 



1 66 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

society might be gathered and exist in vain. This also follows 
necessarily from the conceded form of rule, from the differ- 
ence of state of each member, and from the approach to God 
through love. For that form must be determined by the 
purer of every degree, consequently by the purest, who has 
been without sin, that is, by our Saviour and Preserver, Jesus 
Christ, in whom alone we can by faith and love draw near 
to the Divine Throne " (p. 246). 

To review Swedenborg's labors as a philosopher : — 

We find him coming into the field in the Augustan age 
of philosophy, when human reason had gone as far as of its 
own power it could go in the search for the soul and the 
Infinite ; when its next step was to be either a plunge into 
materialism and unbelief, or a confession of its own impo- 
tence and a submission to something above itself. We find 
him seizing upon all the vantage ground that had been 
gained, from Plato and Aristotle to Leibnitz and Locke ; by 
the deduction of idealism and the induction of realism plac- 
ing in order the already vast accumulations of science ; with 
the aid of the microscope and of the telescope reading the 
Book of Nature, for the purpose of learning the steps by 
which the power of the Highest descends, in order that the 
soul might remount by them to His contemplation ; not of 
its own strength, but submissively to His Word, trusting to 
His leading hand, and hearkening to His guiding Spirit. 1 

Of the steps that thus opened before him, let us bear in 
mind these : — 

That all of life is in and from the Divine, and that except 
from the Divine nought can for a moment exist. 

1 " Having thus traced the philosophy of Swedenborg to its highest point, we 
may look back for a moment upon his whole method of procedure. Evidently 
it is the inductive and synthetic method combined. Commencing by observa- 
tion, his mind seized upon certain high philosophical axioms ; and from them 
reasoned downwards to the nature and uses of particular objects. Perhaps it is 
the only attempt the world has seen (with the exception of the unsuccessful 
efforts of Comte) at rising upwards to purely philosophical ideas from positive 
and concrete facts." — J. D. Morell : Historical and Critical View of Specu- 
lative Philosophy of Europe in i<)th Century, i. 320. 



STEPS ASCENDING AND DESCENDING. 1 67 

That the inflowing of life from the Divine is primarily into 
forms the most simple, most single, and inmost. 

That the descent of life is through successive degrees, one 
without and correspondent to another, as the body to the 
soul. 

That the outer degree has its life from the inner, and yet 
enjoys a certain freedom of reaction and consent of its 
own. 

That the Divine, by means of its life-giving residence in the 
inmost of every minutest thing, rules all things, from greatest 
to least. 

That, from intimate conjunction with the finite soul, the 
Divine has given as it were a derivation of itself, or an in- 
dwelling of itself, still Divine, as a nexus in the finite. 

That the infinite variety in the created universe is for the 
sake of a most perfect whole, in which there may be a special 
place and use for every individual. 

That this variety is determined by an order of series and 
degrees, in which there is perfect co-ordination and subordi- 
nation. 

That there is thus a subordination of ends, and everything 
subserves the final end. 

That the final end is a universal society of human souls, 
composed of smaller societies in co-ordination and subordi- 
nation, with infinite variety tending to a most perfect whole. 

That this universal society, or heaven, is of necessity ruled 
and ordered by Him who is at once God and perfect Man, 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

It is by these steps that Swedenborg — accepting with the 
idealists the certainty of intuitive, interior perceptions ; with 
the materialists the reality of outward impressions — learned 
to connect them and to mount securely into assurance of 
Divine things, even of Revelation and of the Incarnation. 
Little do we realize who drink in his theology as our mother's 
milk, in what laborious intellectual discipline its philosophic 
foundation was laid. Meanwhile materialists still study only 



1 68 PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 

outward phenomena, ignoring hidden causes. Rationalists 
still discuss mental processes, as if in them lay all the world. 
But in Germany, under Providence, a new school of thinkers 
has sprung up, who, thoroughly trained in philosophic reason- 
ing, have yet the Christian theology for their abiding faith. 
To this school we are indebted, on the one hand, for the 
affirmative tone which German philosophy is gradually as- 
suming, and, on the other, for the amelioration, or philosophic 
interpretation, that for half a century has been quietly steal- 
ing over the dogmatic thought of Calvinistic, Lutheran, and 
even Roman Catholic theologians. That Swedenborg's steps 
in philosophy are not the steps taken by this school, any 
more than his steps in science are the steps taken by the 
modern school of science, need not surprise us. 1 Neither 
do they lead to precisely the same end. But the parallelism 
in the conclusions reached is so striking, that it is becoming 
more and more difficult every day to point out clearly the 
distinction between the doctrine of Swedenborg and that of 
these modern theologians, authors of what they themselves 
call regenerated theology. Essential distinctions, however, 
exist and, we may safely say, will continue to exist, though 
of decreasing importance, till all together can recognize in 
Swedenborg the expounder of the Doctrine that was to 
come. This Doctrine Swedenborg, studying the Revelation 
in Nature, saw as yet but through a glass darkly : his eyes 
needed to be touched by the Divine Hand in order that, in 
the Revelation of the Holy Word, they might see clearly. 

1 Notwithstanding what Mr. Emerson has said in his Representative Men 
(p. 112), — " He must be reckoned a leader in that evolution which, by giving to 
science an idea, has given to an aimless accumulation of experiments guid- 
ance and form and a beating heart," — it would be difficult to show that scien- 
tific men have taken many steps under Swedenborg's leadership. But see 
Appendix XI. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

Hitherto Swedenborg's labors have been devoted to the 
unfolding of the Divine Revelation in the Book of Nature, by 
means of experiment, analysis, and the exercise .of reason, 
under such guidance as he was prepared to receive of the 
Spirit of Truth. In these labors we have observed the ample 
training of the reasoning faculty, coming to maturity, with its 
increasing acknowledgment of dependence on the light of 
the Sun of heaven. We are now to learn the preparation 
of heart yet necessary, in order that the submission to the 
guidance of the Spirit of Truth may become so entire as to fit 
him for unfolding the Divine Revelation in the written Word. 
The groundwork of this preparation we may recognize in 
the "Rules of Life," which Sandel found, as he says in his 
eulogy, "in more than one place among his manuscripts," 
and which may be commended to every one who would fulfil 
the duties of this life and prepare for life in the kingdom 
of heaven : — 

"i. Diligently to read and meditate upon the Word of 
God. 

"2. To be content under the dispensations of God's 
Providence. 

"3. To observe a propriety of behavior, and to preserve 
the conscience pure. 

" 4. To obey what is commanded, to attend faithfully to 
one's office and other duties, and in addition to make one's 
self useful to society in general." 

As marking the progress of the preparation, we find in 
his philosophical works, besides the growing humility and 



I/O SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

reverence that illumine the pages, some plain statements, 
drawn we cannot doubt from his spiritual experience. In 
the part of The Animal Kingdom treating of the soul, he 
says, — 

" To change the disposition is to change the very nature. 
To change a good disposition into an evil one is compar- 
atively easy ; but to change an evil one into a good is 
more difficult. This can in no way be effected, except by 
means of the rational mind and its understanding, whether 
the understanding be our own, or derived from faith, or per- 
suaded by authority. Nor is the nature changed unless we 
become averse to evils and abhor them, and never lead our 
mind back into the former state ; and unless whenever it slips 
back, we snatch it out, from the liberty given, and come into 
the state which agrees with the more perfect love. Nor even 
so is it changed unless we remain a long while in this state, 
and meet the other with force and violence, clothing ourselves 
with the opposite new state by constant works and practices 
of virtues, and so continuing until it has become a second 
nature and expelled, as it were, the other nature, — so that, 
whenever the old nature returns, we perceive that it must be 
resisted. In this way and no other we can put off the evil 
nature and put on a good nature ; but it is very difficult in 
this life without grace and Divine help." 

These we feel to be the words of experience, of long and 
successful labor. But what is here described is only the 
reformation of the natural mind, or disposition. After this it 
is necessary that the natural mind should so far submit as to 
suffer the spiritual mind to flow in with its own loves. 

"To this," Swedenborg says, "the intellect, unless from 
what is revealed, contributes nothing; but faith springing 
from God does the work. And so, His will being invoked, 
His spirit flows into the soul and changes its state, or perfects 
it ; but the work is one of long discipline, if the soul is evil, 
that it may become good. . . . Hence it is plain how diffi- 
cult it is to turn an evil soul into a good one, and that this is 



REGENERATION. 



171 



of the Divine grace alone, though there must be persevering 
application on the part of man." x 

What is here described, though in the terms of his Psycho- 
logy, we cannot fail to recognize as the regeneration of water 
and of the spirit. The description is that of experience, 
already, we may believe, far advanced. What was yet needed 
for its completion we are now to see. But we may well 
pause to consider how little we have ourselves accomplished, 
even of the reformation of the natural disposition, and how 
little we know in our own experience of the total regenera- 
tion sought by Swedenborg. This deep regeneration, though 
with his consent and co-operation, was being effected by the 
Lord for a purpose to him unknown. A few years later, he 
wrote, — 

" What the acts of my life involved I could not distinguish 
at the time they happened, but by the Divine mercy of God 
Messiah I was afterwards informed with regard to some, even 
many particulars. From these I was at last able to see that 
the Divine Providence governed the acts of my life unin- 
terruptedly from my very youth, and directed them in such a 
manner that by means of the knowledge of natural things I 
was enabled to reach a state of intelligence, and thus by the 
Divine mercy of God Messiah, to serve as an instrument for 
opening those things which are hidden interiorly in the Word 
of God Messiah." (Adv. hi. 8^g 2 .) 

Still later, Nov. n, 1766, he wrote to Oetinger, — 

" I was introduced by the Lord into the natural sciences, 
and thus prepared, and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, 
when heaven was opened to me." And this he said was for 
the purpose, — 

"That the spiritual things which are being revealed at the 
present day may be taught and understood naturally and 
rationally; for spiritual truths have a correspondence with 
natural truths, because in these they terminate, and upon 
these they rest. . . . The Lord has granted me besides to 

1 De Anima, pp. 218-220. 2 The references are now to Numbers. 



172 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

love truths in a spiritual manner, — that is, to love them, not 
for the sake of honor, nor for the sake of gain, but for the 
sake of the truths themselves ; for he who loves truths for 
the sake of truth, sees them from the Lord, because the 
Lord is the Way and the Truth." 

For a better understanding of this love of truth for the 
sake of truth, and of its effects, we will here quote a passage 
or two from Swedenborg's Arcana Ccelesiia, and more by 
and by : — 

" Doctrine is to be drawn from the Word, and while it is 
being drawn man must be in illustration from the Lord ; and 
he is in illustration when in the love of truth for the sake of 
truth, not for the sake of self and the world. These are they 
who are illustrated in the Word when they read it, and see 
truth, and therefrom form for themselves doctrine. The rea- 
son is, because such men communicate with heaven, thus with 
the Lord, and so, being illustrated from the Lord, they are 
led to see the truths of the Word as they are in heaven ; for 
the Lord flows in through heaven into their understandings, 
the interior understanding being what is illustrated. The 
Lord at the same time flows in with faith, by means of the co- 
operation of the new will, to which it belongs to be affected 
with truth for the sake of truth." 1 (A. C. 9424.) 

"The Lord speaks with the man of the Church in no 
other way than by means of the W T ord, for He then illustrates 
man, so that he may see the truth ; and He also gives per- 
ception, so that man may perceive that it is so. But this 
takes place according to the quality or the desire of truth 
with man, and the desire of truth with man is according to 
the love of it. They who love truth for the sake of truth are 
in illustration, and they who love truth for the sake of good 
are in perception." (A. C. 10,290.) 

Again he says of his own preparation, — 

1 Swedenborg uses the word " illustrate" [illzistrare] in the sense of filling 
-with light. The translations sometimes give "illumine," and sometimes "en- 
lighten," for the same word, with the same meaning. 



DREAMS. I73 

" I was once asked how from a philosopher I became 
a theologian ; and I answered, ' In the same manner that 
fishers were made disciples and apostles by the Lord, and I 
also from early youth had been a spiritual fisher.' On hearing 
this, the inquirer asked what a spiritual fisher was. I replied 
that a fisher, in the spiritual sense of the Word, signifies a 
man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and after- 
wards spiritual truths in a rational manner. . . . On hearing 
this, my interrogator raised his voice and said, * Now I can 
understand why the Lord called and chose fishers to be His 
disciples ; and so I do not wonder that He has also called 
and chosen you, since, as you have said, you were from early 
youth a fisher in a spiritual sense, that is, an investigator of 
natural truths ; the reason that you are now become an in- 
vestigator of spiritual truths is because these are founded on 
the other.'" (Int. S. & B. 20.) 

Of the manifestation to him of the Divine purpose, and 
of further steps necessary in preparation, we now learn many 
things from his Spiritual Diary : — 

"During several years," he notes, Aug. 27, 1748, "not 
only had I dreams by which I was informed about the things 
on which I was writing, but I experienced also changes of 
state, there being a certain extraordinary light in what was 
written. Afterwards I had many visions with closed eyes, 
and light was given me in a miraculous manner. There was 
also an influx from spirits, as manifest to the sense as if it had 
been into the senses of the body ; there were infestations in 
various ways by evil spirits, when I was in temptations ; and 
afterwards, when writing anything to which the spirits had 
an aversion, I was almost possessed by them, so as to feel 
something like a tremor. Flamy lights were seen [confirming 
what was written] and conversations heard in the early morn- 
ing, besides many other things." "For nearly three years," 
he writes in August, 1747, "I have been allowed to perceive 
and notice the operation of spirits, not by a sort of internal 
sight, but by a sensation which is associated with a sort of 



1/4 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

obscure sight, by which I noticed their presence, which was 
various, their approach and departure, besides many other 
things." 

For some years his dreams had been growing more re- 
markable and more significant, so that he had been led to 
keep a record of them. The earlier records, beginning as early 
as 1736, were cut from his "Diary" for preservation in the 
family, and now are lost ; but there is still preserved a minute 
account of those that he had at Amsterdam and London in 
the spring and summer of 1744, the critical period of his 
spiritual experience, together with a brief memorandum of the 
dreams that came to him in the previous December, when he 
had gone from Amsterdam to the Hague. These dreams were 
personal and private, involving often dire temptations, and 
signifying to him many things about his studies and his states, 
by representations which without such understanding would 
be meaningless or repulsive. They were not recorded for any 
one's use but his own, and yet to the student of Swedenborg's 
progress they occasionally afford valuable aid. For instance, 
in this December he notes, — 

"I wondered at myself that I had not, so far as my own 
consciousness told me, any concern remaining for my own 
honor, and that I was no longer inclined to the other sex as 
I had been all my life long." 

By this inclination which now ceased, we are of course 
to understand, not the spiritual affection which belongs to 
the spiritual man, but the natural inclination which is of 
self, akin to the "self-interest and self-love in my work" 
that he again wonders at being delivered from, and which 
must needs be left behind on approaching the gates of 
heaven. The natural disposition is submitting to be ruled 
by the spiritual mind from the Lord, as he about this time 
described ; yet he did not yield up his natural will, which 
was necessarily strong in a man of his power, without many 
a painful struggle. He notes the same month, — 

" How I opposed myself to the Spirit ; and how I then en- 



RESISTING THE SPIRIT. 



175 



joyed this, but afterwards found that it was nonsense, without 
life and coherence ; and that consequently a great deal of 
what I had written, in proportion as I had rejected the power 
of the Spirit, was of that description ; and, indeed, that thus 
all the faults are my own, but the truths are not my own. 
Sometimes indeed I became impatient and thought I would 
rebel, if all did not go on with the ease I desired, after I no 
longer did anything for my own sake. [And again] I found 
my unworthiness less, and gave thanks for the grace." 

This is interesting in connection with the fact that in the 
Economy of the Animal Kingdom, published three years 
before, we find some material statements which have been 
disproved by later researches ; while in The Animal King- 
dom, which he was now preparing for the press, nothing of 
importance is found that does not stand the test of time. It 
is noteworthy also that near this period he appends to some 
of his manuscripts the remark, " These things are true, for I 
have the sign," l — by which we understand him to mean the 
flamy sign that appeared to him as a confirmation of what 
was true. To others again he appends, on stating what he 
is going to do, " So I seem ordered." 

Still his struggles go on : — 

" How I resisted the power of the Holy Spirit, and what 
took place afterwards. The hideous spectres which I saw, 
without life, — they were terrible ; although bound, they kept 
moving in their bands. They were in company with an ani- 
mal, by which I and not the child was attacked. It seemed 
to me as if I were lying on a mountain, below which was an 
abyss ; knots were on it. I was lying there trying to hold 
myself up, holding on to a knot, without foothold, and an 
abyss underneath. This signifies that I desire to rescue my- 
self from the abyss, which yet is not possible." 

That is to say, as we understand, the abyss of natural, sel- 
fish will, out of which we are to be rescued by the Divine 
grace, but not possibly by our own power. In March he 

1 See Photolith vi. at bottom of p. 31S, on the " Corpuscular Philosophy." 



1^6 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

dreams again of the abyss, into which there is danger of fall- 
ing unless he receive help. 

In April, " the day before Easter, I experienced nothing the 
whole night, although I repeatedly woke up ; I thought that 
all was past and gone, and that I had been either forsaken or 
exiled. About morning it seemed to me as if I were riding, 
and as if I had had the direction pointed out. It was however 
dark, and when I looked I found that I had gone astray on 
account of the darkness ; but then it brightened up and I saw 
how I had gone wrong, and I noticed the way and the forests 
and groves which I was to go through, and also heaven behind 
them, and then I awoke. My thoughts then of their own ac- 
cord turned upon this, and afterwards on the other life, and it 
seemed to me as if everything was full of grace. I burst in- 
to tears at having not loved, but rather provoked, Him who 
had led me and pointed out the way to the kingdom of grace ; 
and also at my being unworthy of acceptance by grace." 

"Easter was on the 5th of April, when I went to the Lord's 
table. Temptation still continued, most in the afternoon, till 
six o'clock ; but it assumed no definite form. It was an 
anxiety felt at being condemned and in hell ; but in this feel- 
ing the hope given by the Holy Spirit, according to Paul's 
epistle to the Romans, v. 5, remained strong, ... I was 
assured that my sins were forgiven, and yet I could not con- 
trol my wandering thoughts so as to restrain some expressions 
opposed to my better judgment : I was by permission under 
the influence of the Evil One. The temptation was assuaged 
by prayer and the Word of God : faith was there in its en- 
tirety, but confidence and love seemed to be gone." 

After describing a terrible conflict that followed with a 
snake, changing to a dog, in a dream, he adds, — 

" From this may be seen the nature of the temptation, and, 
on the other hand, the greatness of God's grace by the merit 
of Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit, to whom be 
glory forcer and ever. The idea at once struck me how 
great tlv / te of the Lord is, who accounts and appropriates 



TEMPTATIONS. 1 77 

to us our resistance in temptation, although it is purely God's 
grace, and is His and not our work ; and He overlooks our 
weaknesses in it, which yet must be manifold. I thought also 
of the great glory our Lord dispenses after a brief period of 
tribulation. . . . Afterwards I awoke and. slept again many 
times, and all was in answer to my thoughts ; yet so that in 
everything there was such life and glory that I can give no 
description of it ; for it was all heavenly, clear to me at the 
time, but afterwards inexpressible. In short I was in heaven, 
and I heard a language which no human tongue can utter 
with its inherent life, nor the glory and inmost delight result- 
ing from it. Besides, while I was awake I was in a heavenly 
ecstasy which is also indescribable. . . . Praise and honor 
and glory be to the Highest ! hallowed be His Name ! Holy, 
Holy, Lord God of Hosts !" 

By this means, he says, "I learned by experience the mean- 
ing of this, — not to love the angels more than God ; as they 
had nearly overthrown the whole work. In comparison with 
our Lord no attention must be paid to them, that is, to them 
in respect to the help they can render, — since their love is 
far lower than His. By some rays of light in me I found that 
it would be the greatest happiness to become a martyr ; for, 
on beholding inexpressible grace combined with love to God, 
a desire was kindled in me to undergo this torture, which is 
nothing compared with eternal torment ; and [a sense] that 
the least of the things that one can offer is his life. . . . This 
took place in the night between Easter Sunday and Easter 
Monday." 

Here we see the inward depth of the temptation and re- 
generation which Swedenborg was now undergoing. All his 
previous efforts were external in comparison, and futile. In- 
deed he is learning the inefficacy and error of all merely 
human efforts for goodness, even those of the angels them- 
selves. And all this was to the end that he might yield him- 
self wholly into the Lord's hands, and become His humble, 
faithful servant, with a new heart and a new spirit. Nor was 

12 



I78 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

his personal regeneration all that was at stake. The great 
question as to how regeneration is accomplished was to be 
experimentally solved and intelligently comprehended. From 
the time of the Christian Fathers it had become more and 
more misunderstood. The Roman Catholic Church taught 
that it was effected by baptism, and confirmed by good works. 
The Reformed Churches had adopted the same belief in bap- 
tism, as regeneration, for those who should receive faith, as the 
elect, — denying that men can do anything about it. For the 
implanting of a new, true, interior Church, it was essential 
that the real means of regeneration should be understood. 
Swedenborg, by inheritance, was a mild Lutheran. By expe- 
rience he now learns that neither has baptism regenerated, 
nor his own labor in reformation ; that he is in danger of the 
abyss from deep natural tendency to sin; that the Lord's 
merit cannot be imputed to him, and so effect his salvation ; 
but that to be saved, he must see and confess his sinfulness, 
be distressed on account of it, pray to the Lord for the grace 
of forgiveness, making every possible effort of resistance to 
evil, and all with the acknowledgment that both the prayer 
and the effort are not his own, but given from the Lord alone. 
The process, indeed, is not essentially different from that we 
have seen already sketched in The Animal Kingdom ; but it is 
now being accomplished in interior degrees, far beyond what 
Swedenborg had imagined. And here it should be remarked 
that the term "regeneration" is applicable to several distinct 
degrees of the mind, of which the more interior are opened and 
regenerated with comparatively few. Of this we shall learn 
more in the arca?ia coelestia of the first chapter of Genesis. 
And as each successive degree is nearer to the Lord, His 
presence and agency in its regeneration become more clearly 
seen ; or, in other words, each successive approach to the 
Lord brings a new consciousness of interior tendency to sin, 
which must needs be deplored and - submitted to Him, and a 
deeper consciousness that all the power of deliverance is from 
Him alone. 



TEMPTATIONS. 1 79 

To continue our extracts from the note-book of dreams : 

"April 6 and 7. In the evening I came into another 
kind of temptation. . . . While I was reading God's miracles 
wrought through Moses, it seemed to me as if something of 
my own understanding was mixed up with it, so that I was 
not able to have so strong a faith as I ought. I believed, and 
yet did not believe. I thought that for this reason angels 
and God appeared to shepherds, and not to a philosopher, 
who allows his understanding to come into play, which would 
keep leading him to ask why God used the wind when He 
called the locusts together ; why He hardened Pharaoh's 
heart, and did not work directly, — with other like things 
which I thought of, and the effect of which was such that my 
faith was not firm. I looked upon the fire, and said to my- 
self, f In this case neither ought I to believe that the fire is, 
since the external senses are more fallacious than what God 
says, which is the Truth itself; I ought rather to believe this 
than myself.' With these and other similar thoughts I passed 
an hour, or an hour and a half, and in my mind was engaged 
with the Tempter." 

The temptation was clearly an effort of the evil spirits to 
prevent his giving up his heart to the Divine Will, under the 
specious plea that in so doing he would have to resign his 
powers of understanding, in which his natural confidence and 
pleasure were great. The occasion of this effort of the spirits 
who had hitherto nattered his self-confidence, appears plainly 
from what follows : — 

"■ I must observe that on the same day I had gone to Delft, 
and had had the grace of being engaged in profound spiritual 
thought, — my thoughts being more profound and beautiful 
than they had ever been before, and indeed during the 
whole day. This was the work of the Spirit, who had been 
with me. 

"At ten o'clock I went to bed, and in little more than half 
an hour afterwards I heard a noise under my head. I then 
thought that the Tempter was gone. Immediately afterwards 



l80 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

a tremor came over me, powerfully affecting me from the 
head over the whole body, accompanied by some sound. 
This was repeated several times. I felt that something holy 
had come over me. I then fell asleep, and about midnight 
or a little later in the night a most powerful tremor seized 
me from head to foot, with a sound like the concourse of 
many winds. By this sound, which was indescribable, I was 
shaken and thrown on my face ; while, at the moment I 
was thus thrown down, I became wide awake, and I then 
saw that I had been prostrated. I wondered what all this 
meant, and then spoke, as if I were awake. I noticed, how- 
ever, that these words were put into my mouth : ' O Thou 
Almighty Jesus Christ, who of Thy great mercy deignest to 
come to so great a sinner, make me worthy of this grace ! ' 
I lifted up my hands and prayed, when a hand came and 
strongly pressed my hands. I then continued my prayer and 
said, ' O Thou who hast promised to receive in mercy all sin- 
ners, Thou canst not otherwise than keep this Thy word ! ' I 
lay on His bosom and looked at Him face to face. It was a 
countenance with a holy expression, and so that it cannot be 
described. It was also smiling, and I really believe that His 
countenance was such during His life on earth." 

With this remarkable narration we should bear in mind 
Swedenborg's later account of the manner in which the Lord 
at times appears in personal presence to spirits and angels, 
and at rare intervals to men, — that it is not in His own 
proper person, which is too holy and infinite for near ap- 
proach, but in the person of an angel, so filled for the time 
being with the Spirit of the Lord that the angel's own spirit 
is superseded, and his face shines with the Divine radiance. 
Compare the angel's appearance to John in vision, now as 
the Lord Himself and again as an angel, his fellow-servant. 
This is evidently the nature of Swedenborg's present vision, 
or rather dream, for it occurred during sleep, and involved 
some of the incongruities of expression that are so familiar 
in dreams. Yet, as showing the process of Swedenborg's 



DIVINE GRACE. l8l 

spiritual preparation, it is most valuable to us, as it was 
most memorable to him. The record continues : — 

" He addressed me, and asked if I had a sound-health pass 
[the assurance of a clean heart]. I answered, 'O Lord, 
Thou knowest better than I ; ' when He said, ' Do it then ! ' 
This, as I perceived in my mind, signified, ' Love Me really,' 
or, ' Do what thou hast promised.' O God, impart to me 
grace for this ! I perceived that I could not do it by my 
own strength. I now. awoke in a tremor. I again came into 
such a state that, whether asleep or awake, I was in a train of 
thought. I thought, 'What can this mean? Has it been 
Christ, the Son of God, whom I have seen ? But it is sinful 
in me to doubt this.' As we are, however, commanded to try 
the spirits, I reflected on everything; and from what had 
happened the previous night I perceived that during the 
whole of that night I had been purified and encompassed 
and preserved by the Holy Spirit, and thus had been pre- 
pared for this purpose ; and then that I had fallen on my 
face : and I thought of the words I had uttered, and con- 
sidered that the prayer did not come from me, but that 
the words were put into my mouth, yet so that it was I who 
spoke ; and further that all was holy. I*rom all this I per- 
ceived that it was the Son of God Himself who had descend- 
ed with such a sound, by which I had been prostrated on the 
floor ; who made the prayer, and thereby declared that He 
was Jesus. I prayed for grace, because I had so long enter- 
tained doubts on the subject, and because it had entered into 
my thoughts to demand a miracle, which I now found was 
unbecoming. Thereupon I began to pray, and prayed only 
for grace, — more I could not utter ; but afterwards I added 
to this prayer, and prayed that I might receive love, which is 
Jesus Christ's work and not my own. In the mean time 
tremors often passed over me. 

"About day-break I fell asleep again, and then I had con- 
tinually in my thought how Christ conjoins Himself to man- 
kind. Holy thoughts came, but they were of such a nature 



1 82 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

as to be unfathomable, for I cannot express with my pen the 
least part of those things which happened. I only know that 
I have had such thoughts. . . . 

"I must not forget that it also entered into my thoughts 
that the Holy Spirit desired to lead me to Jesus, and present 
me to Him as a work that had been prepared by Him [the 
Holy Spirit] ; and that I must not claim anything to my- 
self, but that all is His, although of grace He appropriates 
it to us. . . . 

"This much have I learned thus far in spiritual things, that 
there is nothing for it but to humble one's self, and with all 
humility to desire nothing but the grace of Christ. I strove 
from my own self to obtain love ; but this is presumptuous, for 
when any one has God's grace, he leaves himself to Christ's 
pleasure, and acts according to His pleasure. A person is 
happiest when he is in God's grace. With the humblest 
prayer I had to ask forgiveness before my conscience could 
be appeased ; for, before doing so, I was still in temptation. 
The Holy Spirit taught me all this, but I in my weak under- 
standing passed over humility, which yet is the foundation 
of all." 

Here we observe the manner of thought in which Sweden- 
borg had been educated, — of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Spirit, as distinct in person, and of one as mediating 
with another. He had not yet learned what he afterwards 
taught so long and earnestly, that the Father is in the Son, 
and that the Holy Spirit is His Divine operation in men. But 
he was beginning to learn by actual experience what he was 
soon to teach the world, and what had hitherto been a mys- 
tery fruitful of unbelief, — how a man can be led in freedom 
and reason to accept the will of the Spirit in place of his 
natural will, and thus of the Spirit to be born again. . 

"April 7 and 8. . . . I was also in a temptation where 
thoughts invaded me which I could not control ; nay, they 
poured in so powerfully that all my other thoughts were kept 
under, and full liberty was given them to resist the power of 



DIVINE GRACE. 1 83 

the Spirit, which leads in a different direction. The infesta- 
tion was indeed so strong that, unless God's grace had been 
stronger, I must either have succumbed or become mad. 
During that time I could not direct my thoughts to the con- 
templation of Christ whom I had seen for that brief moment. 
The action of the Spirit and its power affected me so that I 
almost lost my senses. ... I can compare this only to a 
pair of scales, in one of which is our own will and sinful na- 
ture, and in the other the power of God. These our Lord 
disposes in temptation so that they are in a state of equilib- 
rium ; as soon, then, as it is borne down on this side, He 
helps it up again. Such have I found to be the case, speak- 
ing in a natural manner ; from which it follows that this is far 
from being our own power, for that draws the scale down, 
and is rather opposed to than co-operating with the Spirit's 
power ; and consequently it is entirely our Lord's work, which 
is thus disposed by Him. . . . This have I learned, that the 
only thing in this state — and I do not know any other — is, 
in all humility, to thank God for His grace and to pray for it, 
and to recognize our own unworthiness and God's infinite 
grace. . . . Afterwards, when various things occurred to me 
of which I had thought long ago and which had become 
fixed in my mind, it was just as if I had been told that I 
had found reasons for excusing myself (this also was a great 
temptation for me) , or again reasons for attributing to myself 
the good that I had done, or rather that was done through 
me ; but God's Spirit prevented even this, and caused me to 
find it otherwise. This last temptation was severer than the 
first, as it went to the innermost ; and to resist it I received 
a stronger evidence of the Spirit, for at times I broke into a 
perspiration. What then arose in my mind had no longer the 
effect of condemning me, for I had a strong assurance that I 
had been forgiven ; but the desire came to excuse myself and 
make myself free. Very often I burst into tears, not of sor- 
row, but of inmost joy at our Lord's deigning to be so gra- 
cious to so unworthy a sinner ; for the sum of all I found to 



184 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

be this, that the one thing needful is to cast one's self in all 
humility on our Lord's grace, to recognize one's own unwor- 
thiness, and to thank God in humility for His grace ; for if 
there is a feeling of glorification contained in it, the tendency 
of which is towards our own honor, — whether it is a glori- 
fication of God's grace or of anything else, — such a feeling is 
impure. ... I found that I was more unworthy than others 
and the greatest sinner for this reason, that our Lord has 
granted me to penetrate by thought into certain things more 
deeply than many others do ; and the very source of sin lies 
in the thoughts I am carrying out, so that my sins have on 
that account a deeper foundation than those of many others : 
and in this I found my unworthiness and my sins greater than 
those of other men. For it is not sufficient to declare one's 
own unworthiness, since the heart may be far removed from 
such a declaration, and it may be a mere matter of the imag- 
ination ; but actually to see that such is the case is due to 
the grace of the Spirit. 

" Now, while I was in the spirit, I thought and strove by 
thought to attain a knowledge of how to avoid all that was 
impure. I noticed, however, that this intruded itself from the 
ground of the love of self on all occasions when anything was 
reflected upon ; as, for instance, when any one did not regard 
me according to my own estimation of myself, I thought, 
' Oh, if you only knew what grace I have, you would act differ- 
ently.' This, then, was not only impure, but originated in the 
love of self. At last I found this out, and entreated God's 
forgiveness ; and I then wished that others also might have 
the same grace, as they perhaps either have had or will have. 
From this I observed clearly that there was still in me that 
same pernicious apple which has not yet been converted, 
and which is Adam's root and his hereditary sin. Yes, and 
an infinite number of other roots of sin remain in me." 

No one who has himself begun to receive the grace that 
lays bare the sinfulness of the heart, can read these sentences 
without feeling that the writer was indeed approaching the 



TEMPTATIONS. 1 85 

judgment-seat, and without earnestly desiring with him that 
his longed-for purification may have been accomplished. 
That the self-condemnation was real, and no mere show of 
words, is plain from its particular application, as in the fol- 
lowing instance : — 

" I saw a bookshop, and immediately the thought struck 
me that my work would have more effect than that of others ; 
yet I checked myself at once. For one serves another, and 
our Lord has more than a thousand ways by which to pre- 
pare a man ; so that each and every book must be left to its 
own merits, as a means near or remote, according to the 
rational condition of every man. Still arrogance crops up : 
may God control it, for the power is in His hands ! " 

And again, six months later, in London, he notes, — "I 
dreamed how a big dog, which I thought was fastened, flew 
at me and bit me in the leg. Some one came and held its 
terrible jaws, so that it could do no more mischief. The day 
before I had been at the Medical College hearing a lecture, 
when I was rash enough to think that I should be mentioned 
as one of those who understood anatomy best ; I was glad, 
however, that this was not done." 

He had trusted that this love for his own works was sub- 
dued and securely fastened. He had to learn again and 
again, like every other regenerating man, that he was depen- 
dent on the continual protection of the Lord. 

"April 10 and 11. . . . When awake, I began thinking 
whether all this was not mere fantasy ; and I then noticed 
that my faith was vacillating. I therefore pressed my hands 
together and prayed that I might be strengthened in faith, 
which also took place immediately. Again, when thoughts 
occurred to me about being worthier than others, I prayed in 
like manner, whereupon these thoughts at once vanished : if, 
therefore, our Lord in the least withdraw His hand from any 
one, he is out of the true path, and also out of faith, as has 
been manifestly the case with me. 

"I slept this night about eleven hours, and during the 



I 86 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

whole of the morning was in my usual state of internal glad- 
ness, which was, nevertheless, attended with a pang : this, I 
thought, arose from the power of the spirit and my own 
unworthiness. At last, with God's help, I came into these 
thoughts, — that we ought to be contented with everything 
which pleases the Lord, because it is for the Lord to say ; 
and, further, that the Spirit is not to be resisted, when we re- 
ceive from God the assurance that it is God's grace which 
does all things for our welfare ; for if we are God's, we must 
be delighted with whatever He pleases to do with His own : 
still we must ask the* Lord for this, because not even the least 
thing is in our own power. For this the Lord gave me His 
grace. I reflected upon this, desiring to understand the rea- 
son why all this happens to me. Yet this was sinful ; for my 
thoughts ought not to have gone in that direction, but I 
ought to have prayed to the Lord for power to control them. 
It ought to be enough for us that it so pleases the Lord. In 
everything we ought only to call upon Him, pray to and thank 
Him, and with humility recognize our own unworthiness. 

" I am still weary in my body and mind ; for I know noth 1 
ing except my own unworthiness, and am in pain on account 
of being a -wretched creature. I see by this knowledge that 
I am unworthy of the grace I have received. ... I have 
therefore adopted the following motto : — 

" God's will be done ; I am Thine and not mine. 

"God give grace for this ; for it is not mine. 

"April ii and 12. . . . There is not a single thought 
which is not very much alloyed with uncleanness and im- 
purity. It is therefore best that man should every hour and 
every moment acknowledge that he is deserving of the pun- 
ishment of hell ; but that God's grace and mercy which are 
in Jesus Christ overlook it. I have, indeed, observed that 
our whole will into which we are born, and which is ruled by 
the body and introduces thought, is opposed to the Spirit 
which does this ; wherefore there is a continual strife, and we 
can by no manner of means unite ourselves with the Spirit, 



CONFLICT. 187 

which by grace is with us ; and hence it is that we are dead 
to everything good, but to everything evil we are inclined 
from ourselves. For this reason we must at all times ac- 
knowledge ourselves guilty of innumerable sins, because our 
Lord God knows all, and we only very little about them ; we 
know only so much as enters into our thoughts, and only when 
it also enters into the actions, do we become convinced of it. 

"April 12 and 13. . . . God's grace thus showed me that 
I had to strive after salvation amid fear and trembling. But 
I have for my motto : ' God's will be done ; I am Thine and 
not mine ;' as therefore I have given myself from myself to 
the Lord, He may dispose of me after His own pleasure. In 
the body there seemed to be something of discontent, but in 
the spirit joy; for the grace of our Lord does this. May 
God strengthen me therein ! 

"I was continually in a state of combat between 'thoughts 
which were antagonistic to one another. I pray Thee, O 
Almighty God, that thou wouldst grant me the grace of being 
Thine and not mine. Pardon my saying that I am Thine 
and not mine ; it is God's privilege and not mine to say 
so. I pray for the grace of being Thine, and of not being 
left to myself. 

" 'April 13 and 14. . . . During the whole day I was in con- 
flicting thought, which tried to destroy that which was of the 
Spirit by abusive language. I found therefore that the temp- 
tation was very strong. By the grace of the Spirit I was led 
to fix my thoughts on a piece of wood or a tree, then on the 
cross of Christ, and on the crucified Christ ; and whenever I 
did so, the other thoughts fell down flat as of their own ac- 
cord. . . . God be praised who gave me this weapon ! May 
God graciously keep me in this, that I may have my crucified 
Saviour constantly before my eyes. For I dared not look on 
my Jesus, whom I have seen, because I am an unworthy sin- 
ner ; but I ought rather to fall on my face, and it is Jesus who 
then takes me up to Himself that I may see Him. For this 
reason I look upon the crucified Christ." 



1 88 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

Yet even here his next night's dreams showed him that 
he had, perhaps, gone too far, in claiming the crucified Christ 
as his own. But whenever he moved to a distance, falling 
on his knees and praying before Him, it seemed that the sins 
of his weakness were forgiven. 

In these dreams and reflections many things occurred that 
had immediate reference to Swedenborg's studies and writ- 
ings in the day-time. But we must restrict our quotations to 
such as throw light on his spiritual progress, and to only the 
most instructive of these. 

"April 15 and 16. . . . The most singular thing is that I 
now represent the inner man, and, as it were, another than 
myself; that I visit my own thoughts, frighten them, that is, 
the things of my memory ; that I accuse another. This shows 
that matters are changed now, and that I represent the inner 
man, wno is opposed to another [the outer man]. For I 
prayed to God that I might not be my own, but that God 
might please to let me be His." 

"April 18 and 19. . . . I was at Divine service, where I 
noticed that thoughts on matters of faith, respecting Christ, 
His merit, and the like, even though they be entirely favora- 
ble and confirmatory, still cause a certain disquietude, and 
give rise to opposing thoughts which cannot be resisted, 
whenever man tries to believe from, his own understanding, 
and not from the Lord's grace. At last it was granted me 
by the grace of the Spirit to receive faith without reasoning 
upon it, and thus to be assured in respect to it. I then 
saw, as it were below me, my own thoughts, by which faith 
was confirmed ; I laughed in my mind at them, but still 
more at those by which they were impugned and opposed. 
Faith appeared to be far above the thoughts of my under- 
standing. Then only I got peace : may God strengthen me 
in it ! For it is His work ; and mine so much the less, as 
my thoughts, and indeed the best of them, hinder more than 
they are able to promote. ... It is therefore a higher state 
— I am uncertain whether it is not the highest — when man 



TRUE FAITH. 1 89 

by grace no longer mixes up his understanding in matters of 
faith ; although it appears as if the Lord with some persons 
permits the understanding to precede such states of assur- 
ance in respect to things which concern the understanding. 
1 Blessed are they who believe and do not see.' This I have 
clearly written in the Prologue [to The Animal Kingdom"], 
numbers 21, 22 ; yet of my own self I could never have dis- 
covered this or arrived at the knowledge of it, but God's 
grace has wrought this, I being unconscious of it : after- 
wards, however, I perceived it from the very effect and the 
change in my whole interior being. This, therefore, is God's 
grace and His work, and to Him alone belongs eternal glory. 
From this I see how difficult it is for the learned, more 
indeed than for the unlearned, to arrive at such a faith, and 
consequently to conquer themselves so as to be able to smile 
at themselves ; for man's worship of his own understanding 
must first of all be abolished and overthrown, and this is 
God's work and not man's. It is also God's work for man to 
continue him in that state. Faith is in this way separated from 
our understanding and resides above it. This is pure faith ; 
the other, so long as it is mixed up with our own understand- 
ing, is impure. Man's understanding must be put in bonds, 
and under the government of faith. The ground of faith, 
however, must be this, — that He who has spoken it is God 
over all and Truth itself. That we must become like little 
children is to be understood, it seems, in this sense. . . . 
Faith, then, is purely God's gift, and is received by man when 
he lives according to the commandments of God, and when 
he continually prays to God for it." 

Such experience and testimony is most valuable on the 
part of him who was at the very time engaged in exploring 
the philosophy of the soul in the body, to the end that the 
way might be made clearer for the understanding to arrive at 
the true objects of faith. It is to be noted, however, that the 
submission of the understanding which he here enjoins, is to 
the faith given by the grace of God in the inner mind. 



I90 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

"April 19 and 20. . . . God be thanked and praised ! I 
do not will to be my own ; I am certain of it, and believe 
that Thou, O God, lettest me be Thine, all my life long, and 
that Thou dost not take away Thy Holy Spirit from me, 
which strengthens and upholds me. 

"April 21 and 22. . . . On awaking I heard the words, 
' All is grace ; ' by which is meant that all that has happened 
is of grace, and for the best. Afterwards, because it seemed 
to me I was so far separated from God that I could not yet 
think of Him in a sufficiently vivid manner, I came into a 
state of doubt whether I should not direct my journey home- 
wards ; a crowd of confused reasons came, and my body was 
seized with a tremor. Yet I gathered courage and perceived 
that I had come here to do what was best of all, and that I 
had received a talent for the promotion of God's glory. I saw 
that all had helped together to this end ; that the Spirit had 
been with me from my youth for this very purpose ; where- 
fore I considered myself unworthy of life unless I followed 
the straight course. I then smiled at the other seducing 
thoughts, and thus at luxury, riches, and distinction which I 
had pursued. All these I saw to be vain ; and I discovered 
that he who is without them and is contented, is happier than 
he is who possesses them. I therefore smiled at all arguments 
by which I might be confirmed ; and with God's help made 
a resolution. May God grant His help ! . . . I further noticed 
that faith is a sure confidence which is received from God, 
which, nevertheless, consists in every man's acting according 
to his talent for doing good to his neighbor, and continually 
more and more ; that a man must do so from faith, because 
God has so ordered it, and must not reason any more about 
it, but do the work of love from obedience to faith, even 
though this be opposed to the lusts of the body and its per- 
suasions. Wherefore faith without works is not the right kind 
of faith. A man must in reality forsake himself." 

Thus we find Swedenborg learning by experience, from his 
own needs, and under Divine guidance, what saving faith is. 



PURIFICATION. 191 

But dreams of savage dogs and of conflicts with other mon- 
sters alternated with states of peace and joy. "These were 
my infestations, and the struggles with my thoughts which I 
had vanquished. It seemed as if the words interiorescit 
[he is growing interior] , integrator [he is being made whole] , 
were pronounced. This means that I am being inwardly 
purified by means of my infestations." From another dream 
he learns "that God speaks with me, and that I compre- 
hend only the least portion of what He says, because it is 
in representations, of which I understand as yet but very 
little ; and further that He hears and perceives everything 
that is spoken, and every thought that any one entertains." 
From other representative dreams he understands "that I 
must employ my remaining time in writing upon that which 
is higher, and not upon worldly things which are far below ; 
and, indeed, that I must write about that which concerns the 
very centre of all, and that which concerns Christ. May God 
be so gracious as to enlighten me respecting my duty, for I 
am still in some obscurity as to the direction whither I am 
to turn." 

It was not interiorly alone that Swedenborg was being 
purified. Several times he notes dreams from which he learns 
the necessity, for spiritual clearness, of external purification 
and of rigorous moderation of appetite for food. " At the 
idea that I must henceforth apply constraint to my appetite, 
I came into a strange condition, and as it were into a state of 
chagrin ; yet I was soon relieved from it after praying and 
singing a hymn, especially since I would no longer be my 
own, but live as a new creature in Christ." 

Early in May, 1 744, he went to London, for the better 
prosecution of his work, The Animal Kingdom. His dreams, 
interior struggles, and thorough purification were continued. 

"May 5 and 6. . . . This now is the sum of all : First, 
that there is nothing but grace by which we can be saved. 
Second, grace is in Jesus Christ, who is the seat of grace. 
Third, love to God in Christ promotes salvation. Fourth, 



192 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

man then allows himself to be led by the spirit of Jesus. 
Fifth, everything that comes from ourselves is dead, and is 
nothing but sin, and worthy of eternal damnation. Sixth, for 
good can come from no other source save the Lord." 

"London, May 19 and 20. On the 20th I was to go to 
the Lord's supper in the Swedish Church, after having had 
many pernicious thoughts, from which I perceived that my 
body is in a continual state of rebellion : this was also repre- 
sented to me by scum, which was to be skimmed off. On 
Sunday morning it came very clearly from the Spirit into my 
lips that this [the Holy Supper] is the manna which descends 
from heaven. This came to me neither in sleep nor in full 
wakefulness, but it came most distinctly into my thought 
and into my lips that by this is signified Christ in the Lord's 
Supper. The day before I had been prepared, so that I 
was interiorly tranquil and peaceful, being contented with 
the Lord's dispensation ; the whole time also I felt the strong 
influence of the Holy Spirit, and the whole body was filled 
with a delight in the heavenly kingdom upon earth. ... In 
this state I hope to continue, so long as by our Lord's grace 
alone I walk in pure paths and have right intentions ; for as 
soon as I turn aside and try to find my joy in worldly things, 
this state of delight ceases." 

The manner in which Swedenborg up to this period speaks 
of the Holy Spirit, as constantly affecting him, is not quite in 
accordance with his habit after spiritual influences became 
more familiar and better understood by him. In our last 
quotation the influence which he calls of the Holy Spirit may 
have been immediately that. But from his later instruction 
we should infer that the influence of which he commonly 
speaks as that of "the Spirit" was the influence of spirits 
and angels, sometimes, but not necessarily always, under the 
control of the Holy Spirit. , It is to be observed that he had 
not yet learned much about the constant presence and influ- 
ence of spirits and angels. He was moved by "the Evil 
One," or by "the Spirit." About this time he was led, as 



THE DRAGON. 



193 



John Wesley had been a few years earlier, among " the Mora- 
vian Brethren [in London], who maintain that they are the 
true Lutherans, and that they feel the influx of the Holy 
Spirit." But he was withheld, and "not allowed to join their 
brotherhood," "God alone knows," says he, "whether the 
principle of the interior which is the influx of God's Spirit is 
constantly with man." 

"July 21 and 22. . . . A little child would take hold of 
me and take me with him, but it seemed to me as if at last 
I refused. This means that we must be like children in re- 
spect to the Lord. Since children have now been represented 
to me twice, and also in the preceding night, I lighted upon 
these thoughts, — that we must not trouble ourselves for what 
is spiritual to such a degree that it comes to us through our 
own power, nor for worldly things; but that like children 
we must cast our cares on the Lord. . . . On awaking I 
had a vision, when I saw much gold before me ; the air was 
full of it. This denotes that the Lord, who disposes all 
things, gives me in spiritual and in worldly matters all that 
I need, whenever like a child I cast my care upon Him. 

"July 29 and 30. I saw a great beast with wings, which 
at times looked like a human being, yet with a great gorge. 
It did not dare to touch me. I pursued it with a sword, 
yet I had no chance, nor was I strong enough in my arms 
to strike it. At last I saw it standing before me with a gun, 
from which it fired something like poison, without however 
doing me any harm ; for I was protected. Immediately after- 
wards I thrust my sword into its jaws, yet without much 
effect. I ascended higher. It seemed to me as if some one 
said that it was slain. The previous day I had been think- 
ing of the woman and the dragon in the Book of Revelation, 
and I wished I could be instrumental in killing the dragon ; 
when yet there is not anything in my power, but only in the 
Lord's." 

Did Swedenborg then know the meaning of the dragon, 
that it was the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, which he 

*3 



194 SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. 

was already combating in his own efforts for true regenera- 
tion ? He surely did not know, unless as in a dream, that the 
work in store for him was precisely that of destroying the 
dragon and helping into the world the man-child, — the true 
doctrine of the Lord's Church. 1 For he is still laboring in the 
day-time on The Animal Kingdom, and a large share of his 
dreams at night relate to his studies ; sometimes encouraging 
him to expect in them the Divine assistance, sometimes warn- 
ing him not to be withdrawn by them too far from what was 
more holy and of more importance. In this work, which he 
had undertaken of his own counsel, we cannot suppose that 
he would be easily freed from confidence in his own abilities. 
"Afterwards," he says, " I boasted [in a dream] of my strength, 
in the presence of Assessor B. This signifies that daily I sin 
against my God in the thoughts which cling to me, and from 
which no man, but God alone, can deliver me ; likewise that 
I had boasted to D. H. about my work. On the following 
day I had intended to go to the communion ; but I forbore 
when from the above I found that none but God alone can 
give absolution from sins ; wherefore it was given me also to 
observe some things with respect to confession." 

This was written August 5th. On the 27th he notes, — 
"During the last few days I was very much troubled and 
oppressed by my sins, which it seemed to me had not been 
forgiven, and which prevented my attending the Lord's Sup- 
per the last time. Yesterday, however, it seemed to me that 
I had been relieved. During the night the soles of my feet 
appeared all white. This signifies that my sins have been 
forgiven." 

1 It is noticeable that Swedenborg seemed to himself to thrust his sword into 
the jaws of the dragon with, so far as he could see, but little effect ; yet after he 
was taken up higher, he heard that the beast was slain. With all his might he 
thrust the sharp sword of true doctrine, given him from Heaven, into the jaws 
of the pernicious doctrine of justification by faith alone, without perceiving 
much effect on earth. With joy he must now learn above that the old doctrine 
is at its end. 



CHAPTER IX. 

OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

About this time Swedenborg began to project his treatise 
upon the Worship and Love of God. He seems to have 
felt a Divine call to write it, and at times to have doubted 
whether he ought not to leave his other work for the purpose. 
Yet it was with reference to this treatise that he received 
the following caution : — 

" October 6 and 7. . . . Afterwards I lighted upon these 
thoughts and received this instruction, namely, that all love for 
whatever object, — as, for instance, for the work on which I 
am now engaged, — when the object is loved in itself and not 
as a means to the only love, which is to God and Jesus Christ, 
is a meretricious love. For this reason also this love is always 
compared in the Word of God to whoredom. This I have 
also experienced in myself. But when love to God is man's 
chief love, then he does not entertain for these objects any 
other kind of love than that of promoting thereby his love 
of God." Oct. 9 and 10. . . A child fell over my -foot, hurt 
himself, and screamed. I helped him to get up and said, 
'Why do you race so?' This dream no doubt meant that 
I was too much in a hurry with the new work." 

As thoughts on religion filled his mind he became full of 
zeal to instruct others. " Afterwards I seemed to say to my- 
self that the Lord Himself will instruct me. For, as I dis- 
covered, I am in such a state that I know nothing on this 
subject, except that Christ must be all in all, or God through 
Christ, so that we of ourselves cannot contribute the least 
towards it, and still less strive for it : wherefore it is best to 



I96 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

surrender at discretion, and were it possible to be altogether 
passive in this matter, it would be a state of perfection. I 
saw also in a vision how some beautiful bread was presented 
to me on a plate. This was a prediction that the Lord Him- 
self will instruct me, as soon as I have attained that state in 
which I shall know nothing, and in which all my precon- 
ceived notions will be removed from me ; which is the first 
state of learning : or, in other words, that I must first become 
a child, and that then I shall be able to be nurtured in knowl- 
edge, as is being the case with me now." 

Yet this preparation, this work of leading the strong man 
to lay down his confidence in his own strength and his love 
for his own works because his own, was slow and difficult, 
perhaps in proportion to the greatness of the intellect and 
of its previous triumphs. It was on the 18th of October that 
he had the dream, already quoted, of the big dog which he 
thought had been secured, and yet it flew at him and bit 
him. Again he notes, — 

" October 20 and 21. It was most gracious and wonderful 
that on the day before I had felt myself unworthy of all the 
grace God had been pleased to exhibit towards me ; for love 
of my own self and pride were so deeply rooted in me. I 
therefore prayed to God that He would remove them from 
me, since this is not in my own power. In the evening I 
found myself in a most strange state of mind, such as I had 
never experienced before : for I despaired of God's grace, 
although I knew that God is so gracious, and that He has 
shown greater grace towards me than towards any one else. 
There was an anxiety in the soul, but not in the mind, though 
I became conscious of it only in the mind itself, without feel- 
ing any pain in the body. Afterwards I fell asleep, when it 
seemed to me as if I were closely pursued by two dogs. 
After a long time I got out of their reach, when I was told in 
my thoughts that the object of these strange pains was to cure 
me of them. Whenever, therefore, the root of what is deeply 
ingrained in man is removed, such a feeling of pain is caused. 



THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD. 197 

This is well worth being remembered and preserved in the 
thoughts." 

On the 27th of October he began the work on the Wor- 
ship and Love of God, and laid aside, never to resume, The 
Animal Kingdom. " May God lead me in the right way ! 
Christ said that I must not undertake anything without Him." 
" In the morning on awaking I fell into a swoon or fainting 
fit, similar to that which I experienced about six or seven 
years ago at Amsterdam, when I entered upon the Economy 
of the Animal Kingdom; but it was much more subtile, so 
that I was almost dead. It came upon me as soon as I saw 
the light. I threw myself upon my face, when .it gradually 
passed off. In the mean time short, interrupted slumbers 
took possession of me ; so that this swoon, or deliquium, was 
deeper, but I soon got over it. This signifies that my head 
is being cleared, and is in fact being cleansed of all that 
would obstruct these thoughts : as was also the case the last 
time, because it gave me penetration, especially whilst writ- 
ing. This was represented to me now in that I appeared 
to write a fine hand." 

Here ends abruptly this wonderful record of the introduc- 
tion of a man, by gradual separation from the life and work 
that was natural to him, into spiritual life, spiritual association, 
and spiritual labor in the service of his Master. For the 
completion of this process we must refer to what he says in- 
cidentally in his various works, and in answer to inquiries. 
That this wondrous revelation to him of heights of grace and 
mercy and bliss he had never conceived, together with depths 
of selfishness and sin in his own nature he had never sound- 
ed, was given in completion of the preparation of his long 
studies for some great service to men, he seems already per- 
suaded ; but what this service is to be, he does not yet fore- 
see. For the time being and for himself the purpose of the 
revelation is plain, — to lead him to lay down his own will and 
his own self-intelligent prudence, so as to come nearer to the 
Lord and to be ready and willing to do His bidding, under 



198 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

His guidance, in place of his own. This change of heart re- 
quired of him and granted to him, this acceptance of the 
Divine will in place of his own, — was it not that which our 
Lord Himself alone perfectly fulfilled in His own humanity, 
that which He enjoined on all who would follow Him in the 
regeneration, and that by the fulfilment of which in them- 
selves He would come again to them and manifest Himself 
to them? 

The coming again of the Lord was not to be a merely 
temporary coming, for a transient purpose, but the complete 
fulfilment of His purpose, partially fulfilled at His first com- 
ing, of being forever with men, their God. From the very 
beginning the Lord has sought to be present to the con- 
sciousness of men, through the thunder and through the still 
small voice of nature, through revelation, tradition, visions, 
and dreams, in their reason, and in their heart. By the flesh 
which He took upon Himself, He became in a measure visible 
and audible to them: not in all His fulness,-- for the finite 
cannot fully manifest the Infinite ; not for all time, — for the 
flesh is but for a moment. But by bringing His Divine Life 
down into human life, while dwelling in the flesh, He ac- 
quired a real presence with man in an unlimited and per- 
manent manner, with all His fulness and forever, when the 
material finiteness was dissolved. He did not go away from 
the disciples when He ascended up into Heaven, but His 
Divine fulness became too great for their vision, and so He 
appeared to be withdrawn from their sight. Previously it had 
been said, "The Holy Spirit was not yet, because Jesus 
was not yet glorified." After He had ascended, after the dis- 
solution of what was finite, commenced in the sepulchre, was 
complete, from all the fulness of the Godhead in infinite 
humanity came the power of the Holy Spirit to the disciples, 
working its own works through them. Thus was their Lord 
present with them everywhere and at all times, more nearly, 
more intimately, and more completely than when He was in 
their sight. 



THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 



199 



In this way the Lord desired to be thenceforth dwelling 
with men, their God. Nothing was lacking on His part. All 
that was needed was that men should keep their hearts open 
to Him standing at the door and knocking. But their hearts 
were yet hardened, and they soon closed the door. This He 
had foreseen. He knew but too well that as yet it was be- 
cause they had been fed and were full that they followed 
Him. But He was preparing them, as fast as could be done 
consistently with their freedom, for a reception of Himself 
that would be from free choice of His perfection, in place 
of their imperfection ; from love, and therefore permanent. 
And this new reception He foretold as a new coming on His 
part, though He is always at the door. He foretold it in two 
forms. In the one it was to be not with observation, but in 
the stillness of the heart, the silent entrance of the Spirit of 
Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him 
not, neither knoweth Him ; but the true disciples, they who 
have followed their Lord in the regeneration, know Him ; for 
5e dwelleth with them and shall be in them. * This is His 
entrance into the heart when the door at which He always 
knocketh, at last is opened. 1 In the other form it is foretold 
that the coming of the Son of Man shall be in the clouds of 
heaven, with power and great glory. This is a presentation 
to the eye of the spirit, to the understanding, that should 
make one with the entrance into the heart. How, after the 
opening of the heart, this presentation of the Lord to the 
understanding, in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory, was effected with Swedenborg, and how his own work 

1 It is curious to find a better appreciation of the Spirit of Truth than 
prevailed in the Churches among the Alchemists or Hermetic philosophers, 
commonly supposed to be seeking the philosopher's stone for the making of 
gold, but, according to others, handing down under the symbol of the stone a very 
ancient study for the perfecting of man. Thomas Vaughan, writing on Her- 
metics", or Alchemy, in the middle of the 17th century, said : "God the Father 
is the metaphysical, supercelestial Sun ; the Second Person is the Light ; and 
the third is Amor Ignetts, or a Divine Heat proceeding from both. Now with- 
out the presence of this Heat, there is no reception of the Light, and by conse- 
quence nj reception from the Father of Light." 



200 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

for which he was prepared was found to be in aiding this 
presentation to the understanding of his fellow-men, will be 
seen in what follows. 

Let us notice first, that, coincidently with his increasing 
submission of heart to the Divine guidance, we find a 
growing sensitiveness or openness to spiritual impressions. 
Indeed, whether as a constitutional peculiarity, or as the 
consequence of his absorbed habit of thought, Swedenborg 
had a certain faculty of retrocession from physical activity 
when thinking deeply. In The Animal Ki7igdom he had 
remarked, "When the mind is thinking very intently, and 
breathing tacitly and slowly, then the lungs, elevated to a 
certain degree, appear in like manner to keep silence, and to 
send out and draw in the air almost imperceptibly, so as not 
to disturb the analyses of the rational mind by any motion on 
their part " (part ii. 157). And again, as quoted by Dr. Wil- 
kinson, — "If we carefully attend to profound thoughts, we 
shall find that when we draw breath, a host of ideas rush 
from beneath as through an opened door into the sphere of 
thought, — whereas when we hold the breath, and slowly let it 
out, we deeply keep the while in the tenor of our thought, 
and communicate as it were with the higher faculty of the 
soul ; as I have observed in my own person times without 
number. Retaining or holding back the breath is equivalent 
to having intercourse with the soul : attracting or drawing it 
amounts to intercourse with the body." l 

It appears from Swedenborg's teachings that in the other 
world there is a vast variety in the manner of breathing, the 
breathing of each society being in consonance with and ex- 
pressing its state of thought. The world of spirits, where all 
are first gathered after death, has a common external breath- 
ing, naturally connected with the physical respiration of men 
while yet in the world. With this breathing flows in our 

1 With this it is instructive to compare the experience of the author of Self- 
formation, or the History of an Individual Mind, who found his mental power 
to serve him only during expiration. 



INTERIOR RESPIRATION. 201 

common course of thought. The breathing of angels is more 
interior, more rapid, and less sensible. It is possible also for 
men, when their thought is interior, elevated, and abstracted 
from the world, to have their ordinary sensible breathing sus- 
pended, with its common course of thought, and to have it 
replaced by a more subtile, tacit respiration in sympathy with 
that of heaven : at such times men come more immediately 
into communication with angels, and receive their thoughts, 
or even become conscious of their presence. Such, accord- 
ing to Swedenborg, was the state of the men represented by 
Adam in the Garden of Eden. Since the Fall it has become 
rare ; but something of the kind seems to have been given to 
Swedenborg in his infancy, and again in the deeper studies of 
his later years : — 

" I was first accustomed to breathe in this way in infancy, 
when praying my morning and evening prayers : then at 
times afterwards, when I was exploring the agreements of the 
heart and lungs, especially when I was writing from inner 
thought what I published on these subjects, and this during 
several years. At this time I noticed frequently that there 
was a tacit respiration, scarcely sensible, about which it was 
given afterwards to think, and then to write. In this way 
for many years from infancy I was introduced into such 
breathings, especially through intense speculation, in which 
the [ordinary] breathing subsided ; otherwise no intense 
speculation of truth can be given. Then afterwards, when 
heaven was opened, so that I spoke with spirits, I breathed 
so completely in this way that I did not take in a [common] 
breath for the space of about an hour, only just enough air 
being drawn to enable me to think : in this way I was intro- 
duced by the Lord into interior modes of breathing. Per- 
haps also in sleep ; for I observed sometimes that when I 
was sinking into sleep, respiration was almost taken away from 
me, so that I awoke and caught my breath. Moreover, when 
I am observing, writing, and thinking nothing of the kind, I 
suppose that my respiration is checked without my reflecting 



202 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

upon it, and such things take place that the changes are in- 
numerable. Nor could I observe the variations at the time, 
because they took place without my reflection. This now I 
can say, that each state, each sphere, and thus each society, 
especially the interior ones, has in me a fitting respiration, 
into which I bring myself without reflection. By this as a 
means it is given me also to be among spirits and angels." 
(S. D. 3464.) 

Yet it was long after spiritual manifestations began to occur 
to him, before he thought of the possibility of conversing 
with spirits. Indeed, he knew nothing about spirits. He be- 
lieved in the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Devil. He 
believed in angels, but knew nothing of the world filled with 
the spirits and angels who had once been men. We see 
how gradually the knowledge came to him : — 

" October 3 to 6. I have noticed several times that there 
are various kinds of spirits. The one Spirit, which is that of 
Christ, is the only one that has all blessedness with it ; by 
other spirits man is enticed a thousand ways to follow them, 
but woe to those who do so. Another time Korah and 
Dathan occurred to me, who brought strange fire to the altar, 
and could not offer it. Such is the case when a different fire 
is introduced than that which comes from Christ. I saw also 
something like a fire coming to me. It is necessary there- 
fore that a distinction should be made between spirits, which, 
however, cannot be done except through Christ Himself and 
His Spirit. 

Some years later, after referring to the sundry spiritual 
manifestations which we have already described, he says, — 

"At last a spirit spoke a few words to me, when I was 
greatly astonished at his perceiving my thoughts. After- 
wards, when my mind was opened, I was greatly astonished 
that I could converse with spirits ; as the spirits were aston- 
ished that I should wonder. From this it may be concluded 
how difficult it is for man to believe that he is governed by 
the Lord through spirits, and how difficult it is for him to 



FIRST OPEN VISION. 203 

give up the opinion that he lives his own life of himself with- 
out the agency of spirits." 

The date of this occurrence appears tp have been the 
middle of April, 1745, while still engaged, perhaps, on The 
Worship and Love of God. The fullest account that is pre- 
served is given by his friend Robsahm, who says that in 
answer to his own inquiry where and how it was granted him 
to see and hear what takes place in the other world, Sweden- 
borg answered, — 

" I was in London, and dined rather late at the inn where 
I was in the habit of dining and where I had my own room. 
My thoughts were engaged on the subjects we have been 
discussing. I was hungry, and ate with a good appetite. 
Towards the close of the meal I noticed a sort of dimness 
before my eyes ; this became denser, and I then saw the 
floor covered with the most horrid crawling reptiles, such as 
snakes, frogs, and similar creatures. I was amazed, for I was 
perfectly conscious and my thoughts were clear. At last the 
darkness increased still more ; but it disappeared all at once, 
and I then saw a man sitting in the corner of the room : as I 
was then alone, I was very much frightened at his words ; for 
he said, l Eat not so much.' All became black again before 
my eyes, but immediately it cleared away, and I found myself 
alone in the room." 

That this "man" was a spirit appears from Swedenborg's 
statement about his astonishment when a spirit first spoke a 
few words to him, and from Robsahm's own statement that 
this account was given in answer to his inquiry where and 
how he first came to see and hear spirits. It would seem, 
then, that Robsahm has made a little confusion in what he 
goes on to say about the same mans appearing the following 
night. And yet as, according to Swedenborg, when the Lord 
appears to angels and men, He does so by filling an angel 
with His presence and speaking through his mouth, it may 
be that it was the same angel from the Lord who had been 
present with him in the spiritual thoughts on which he was 



204 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

engaged in the day-time, and then warned him not to yield 
too much to the demands of the body, and again in the night 
instructed him as to the labors for which the Lord was prepar- 
ing him, — first seeming as a man, giving human admonition, 
and then as the Lord, uttering His commands. According to 
Robsahm, Swedenborg continued, — "I went home ; and 
during the night the same man revealed himself to me again, 
but I was not frightened now. He then said that he was the 
Lord God, the Creator of the world, and the Redeemer, 
and that He had chosen me to unfold to men the spiritual 
sense of the Scripture, and that He Himself would show to 
me what I should write on this subject. That same night 
also were opened to me, so that I became thoroughly con- 
vinced of their reality, the world of spirits, heaven, and hell ; 
and I recognized there many acquaintances of every con- 
dition in life. From that day I gave up the study of all 
worldly science and labored in spiritual things, according as 
the Lord had commanded me to write. Afterwards the Lord 
opened my eyes, very often daily, so that in midday I could 
see into the other world, and in a state of perfect wakefulness 
converse with angels and spirits." 

The remarkable absence of dignity and circumstance, such 
as imagination would invent, in this first introduction to the 
sight and hearing of the other world, witnesses nothing against 
its plain truth. We may wonder that the first announcement 
should be so simple a prohibition. On this Swedenborg says 
not a word. We have no reason to suppose him an inordi- 
nate eater ; but doubtless in hunger he gave himself up for 
the time to the body's demand for satisfaction, and his mind 
fell from its high thoughts. The spirits or angels with him 
would perceive his fall, and would, if opportunity were given, 
rebuke him. Fasting, as well as prayer, is the means of re- 
lease from selfishness and evil. With Swedenborg there had 
been reformation of life, and then internal regeneration of a 
very deep kind. This regeneration, as we have seen, must 
needs work outwards till it cleansed the whole life, more per- 



PURIFICATION. 



205 



fectly, because from internal ground, than the first reformation 
could do. It may well be that the last stronghold of selfish 
spirits, not yet given up to the Lord of all, was that of out- 
ward sense. So our Lord Himself finished the work of pu- 
rifying His humanity by overcoming the resistance of the 
body. So the last thing He did for the disciples, before giving 
to them the bread and the wine that represented His own 
life, was to wash their feet, that they might be clean every 
whit. So, too, Swedenborg tells us, those who are internally 
prepared for heaven and who have been delivered from all 
evil except that which belongs to the infirmities of the body, 
are taken up into heaven immediately after death. Whether 
his own deliverance from evil was now completed, we cannot 
say ; but such is the appearance. Indeed, we have in the 
"Diary" a single line of direct testimony. He is describing, 
under date of Dec. 1, 1748, the return, when a man comes 
into the other life, of whatever evil he has done in the world, 
with all its hate and misery, so that he lives as it were his 
life over again. But he adds that this is true only of the evil ; 
that with the good all their good states of love and friend- 
ship return with highest joy and happiness. Then follows the 
simple note, " Experience that there was not evil with me." 
From this we may infer that, by the predominance of the 
good with him, what evil there had been was now mercifully 
removed, not to be a means of assault from evil spirits. 

Spiritual temptations, however, he had to undergo, many 
and severe ; that is, assaults of evil spirits on all that he held 
good and true. In the war that was to ensue between the 
powers of heaven and the powers of hell, between the light of 
the coming of the Lord in His Word, and the darkness of 
priestcraft and infidelity, he held the advanced post. He 
was the standard-bearer on earth, the witness of what was to 
come. Against the standard, against his testimony, there was 
of necessity a combined attack of all the powers of hell. Of 
course he suffered spiritual violence, but undismayed and 
unhurt ; for it was not himself against whom they warred. 



206 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

When they wished to destroy him, they said that they could 
not, because he was nothing; if he were anything, they could 
do it. (S. D. 4067.) Thus he was shown to the life, that if 
he regarded anything in himself as his own, the devils would 
have something to attack, and would destroy him. It was the 
Spirit of Truth, coming to guide into all truth, that was 
the object of their attack ; and this defended Itself and 
him. Thus he says, when unfolding the spiritual sense of 
Genesis, — 

" I have now for some years, though also in the body, been 
with spirits in the other life, and surrounded by evil spirits, 
yea the worst, to whom it was permitted to pour forth their 
venom and infest me in every way they could ; yet they could 
not hurt the least hair, I was so protected by the Lord." 
(A.C. 59.) 

Even on the seas, it would seem, this calming protection 
was about him. In the fulfilment of his mission, writing and 
publishing, he was frequently crossing the stormy North Sea, 
passing to and fro between London and Stockholm or Am- 
sterdam. The master of a ship in which he often sailed told 
him that he would always be welcome to his passage, for with 
him on board the voyage was sure to be prosperous. 

In many ways we see in Swedenborg, a fellow- servant, that 
submission of all things to the Divine will, that guidance and 
protection by the Spirit, of which our Lord gave us the per- 
fect example in His own life on earth, and which He promised 
to all who would follow Him in the regeneration. That it 
was given to Swedenborg in so eminent a degree was at once 
as the necessary means for the service given him to perform, 
and as an example and aid to us in preparation for what our 
Lord has in store for us at this His final coming. 

The immediate work and the great work given Swedenborg 
to do was the unfolding of the spiritual sense from within the 
literal sense of the Word. To this labor, for which, as we 
have found, he had previously some inclination and some 
special preparation, he now addressed himself with all dili- 



THE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD. 207 

gence, after seeing through the press his little work on the 
Worship and Love of God. This work we have seen begun 
in 1 744, and it was published as far as completed, two parts, 
in 1745. It is interesting as marking the transition period, 
when the author's thoughts were turning to spiritual things 
in a certain ecstasy, before they had come into clear light and 
he had settled down to his work of writing what was Divinely 
directed. It is a philosophic prose-poem on the creation 
of the earth and the birth and education of Adam and Eve, 
of fine fancy and great beauty, from which we should quote 
largely if we had not more weighty matter pressing on our 
attention. Being questioned about it in later years, the 
author is said to have replied that the work "was certainly 
founded on truth, but that somewhat of egotism had intro- 
duced itself into it, as he had made a playful use in it of the 
Latin language, on account of having been ridiculed for the 
simplicity of his Latin style in later years. For this reason 
he did not regard it as equal to his other works." Whatever 
of personal exhilaration came to him on his first introduction 
to the study of Divine thingSj may be said to have effervesced 
and thrown off all its foam in this little work. From this 
time forth we have nothing but the clearest statement, in the 
utmost simplicity of language, with no thought of self and not 
the least labor for effect. The change is well stated by Dr. 
Wilkinson, in his "Biography" : — 

" Certainly, in turning from his foregone life to that which 
now occupies us, we seem to be treating of another person, — 
of one on whom the great change has passed, who has tasted 
the blessings of death and disburdened his spiritual part, of 
mundane cares, sciences, and philosophies. The spring of 
his lofty flights in nature sleeps in the dust beneath his feet. 
The liberal charm of his rhetoric is put off, never to be re- 
sumed. ... It is a clear instance of disembodiment, — of 
emancipation from a worldly lifetime ; and we have now to 
contemplate Swedenborg, still a mortal, as he rose into the 
other world. From that elevation he as little recurred to his 



208 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

scientific life, though he had its spirit with him, as a freed 
soul to the body in the tomb : he only possessed it in a 
certain high memory, which offered its result to his new 
pursuits." 

Our Lord in the flesh spoke in a two-fold capacity, — as 
God in declaring that He was one with the Father, that who- 
ever had seen Him had seen the Father, that all power was 
given unto Him in heaven and on earth ; and in calling all 
men unto Him for their salvation ; but as man in declaring 
that he did nothing of himself, in resigning his own will to the 
Father's will, and in giving up his mortal life on the cross. 
In all this His purpose was at once to show men His Divine 
love for them, and to give them an example and a help- 
ing hand, in their own nature, in what this love required 
of them. 

To understand this mystery, — how in Jesus Christ dwelt all 
the fulness of the Godhead bodily, how in Him they saw both 
God and man, the Father brought forth to view in the Son, — 
required an understanding of discrete degrees of existence, 
of the indwelling of one within another, and of the action of 
the outer, as of itself, but from the life of the degree within, 
not possessed by the men of that age. Paul, almost alone, 
seems to have had some apprehension of this philosophy, 
in his declaration that there is a spiritual body as well as a 
natural body, and that the things of God are not received by 
the natural man, but are spiritually discerned. The Church, 
as a whole, had no appreciation of it. In fact, it requires 
something more than intellectual acumen for its right appre- 
hension. In broad terms it may be stated that man can have 
no appreciation of what does not exist, in an image, in him- 
self. Now there exist in every man, open or latent, degrees 
natural, spiritual, and celestial. The natural degree is first 
opened, being that of natural light, — the light of this world, 
of the senses and of natural reason. With a learned man it is 
open wider and deeper than with an ignorant one, but it is 



SPIRITUAL DEGREES. 209 

the natural degree still. The spiritual degree is entirely dis- 
tinct : its light is the light of heaven, the light of love to the 
neighbor, by which things are seen totally different from what 
they appear by the light of the world and of natural love to 
self. This is the degree in which, as Paul says, the things of 
God are spiritually discerned, which are to the natural mind 
but foolishness. But this spiritual degree lies unknown un- 
til it is opened, and it is opened in no other way than by 
resistance to the demands of the natural state, as evil, and 
prayer to the Lord for deliverance. And when the mind is 
opened into this new stage of life, the man is born again. 

Regeneration is the means by which spiritual discernment 
comes, by which the mind learns to appreciate the dis- 
tinction of degrees, and is enabled to understand the rela- 
tion of the Son to the Father, of the Divine to the Divine 
Human. 1 But regeneration has not distinguished the Chris- 
tian Church. The Lord taught it as the means of entrance 
into His kingdom and illustrated it, exhibiting its type in 
the glorification of His Humanity, by which He replaced 
the human will with the Divine ; but Christians, as a body, 
have not followed Him in the regeneration, have not ac- 
cepted His Divine will in place of their own. They have 
desired heaven, but they have desired it as they would have 
desired higher places at this world's tables, from their own 
will and their love of what is good for themselves ; not from 
His will and His love for the good of others. This is the 
reason that they have not understood in its simplicity how, 
by the glorification, the Lord in His Humanity accepted the 
will of the Father, that is, the Father Himself, as His own 

1 It is related of the Rev. John Clowes, one of the earliest translators of Swe- 
denborg's works, that he purchased a copy of The True Christian Religion, on 
the advice of a friend, but at first saw nothing in it to interest him. Some time 
after, as he was about leaving home for a visit, he took down the volume, op- 
ened it, and was annoyed at seeing the phrase " Divinum Humanum^ which 
had no meaning to him. He put up the book and went his way. But on his 
visit, early in the morning, these words appeared to him in Divine glory for a 
full hour ; and again the next morning. He hastened home, read the book dili- 
gently, and became a most loving receiver of its doctrines. 

14 



2IO OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

will, in place of that of the mother which He put away ; and 
thereby became one with the Father, or the Father brought 
forth to view in the Son, to whom was all power in heaven 
and in earth. Correlatively, without this understanding, in 
substance, real regeneration was not possible. Except by fol- 
lowing our Lord in the regeneration, we cannot be regen- 
erated ; except by perceiving that He laid down His own 
maternal human will, in order to receive in its place the pa- 
ternal Divine will, we cannot embrace His help for laying 
down our own will, the will of the flesh, to receive from Him 
in its place His Divine will ; and without this help we can 
do nothing. 

It is not within our knowledge how many or how few in 
the Christian world have individually gained an appreciation 
of this help and embraced it, and followed their Lord in the 
regeneration. No doubt they have been many. But this we 
know, that their numbers have not been so great as to char- 
acterize the doctrine of the Church. From the first declar- 
ations by Council down to the latest creed of the day, no 
such doctrine has been taught. Even Peter himself departed 
so far from the simplicity of expression of his Master, as to 
give countenance to those who taught that they who were to 
be saved were elected by the foreknowledge of the Father, 
for sanctifi cation and justification by faith in their Lord Jesus, 
in strange contrast to the simple teaching of James, — " Sub- 
mit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from 
you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." 
In no creed is the simple Gospel truth stated, that there is 
One God made known to us in the Son, in whom the will 
of the Father is the soul, His human presence is the body, 
and the Holy Spirit is His quickening influence into men ; 
and that our salvation depends on making His regeneration 
our own, by overcoming our natural will and accepting Flis, 
as He overcame the human will and brought the Divine 
down into its place. The early departures from this sim- 
plicity seem to have originated in efforts to display human 



SIMPLE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL. 211 

wisdom, and to have been confirmed by ambition for do- 
minion and by ill-will in place of charity for those who did 
not accept it. Instead of "the wisdom that is from above" 
and "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be en- 
treated, full of mercy and good fruits," there came with 
"bitter envying and strife "in their hearts a "wisdom" that 
"descendeth not from above, but is earthy, sensual, devilish." 
(James hi. 14-17.) In particular, the fiction of attributing 
one character to the Father and another to the Son destroyed 
all simplicity and charity of faith, making two distinct per- 
sons, therefore two distinct Divine Beings of the One God, 
and introduced the "partiality and hypocrisy" attributed by 
James to the wisdom that "descendeth not from above." 
When men were persuaded that God had elected some of 
them, and not others, or that He had delegated the right of 
election to the Pope and his clergy, hypocrisy took the place 
of repentance, and earthly gifts or professions of faith were 
laid upon the altar in place of the true fruits of faith, the 
works of mercy and love. 

What now is needed in order to restore the simple faith of 
the Gospel, and to establish it on a sure foundation? First 
and foremost we need the desire for regeneration, for drawing 
near to our Lord and receiving new life from Him, to which 
is given the light that shows the way. This alone is sufficient 
for those who can accept a simple faith which accords with 
their love, without being anxious to understand its means. 
But for the help of those who want rational confirmation of 
the faith that is in them, there is need of an understanding 
of the manner in which the higher degree may reside in the 
lower, and the lower, by inspiration of the higher, voluntarily 
accept its life for its own and act therefrom, and thus become 
its face, its presence, itself in lower place and form, — as the 
Divine-human presents the Divine, and the natural man the 
spiritual, on accepting the higher life for their own. Other 
supporting knowledge is required, but this is the fundamental, 
central truth of which there has been the greatest need. When 



212 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

this is apprehended, there is no difficulty in understanding how 
our Lord, in the human form and nature, by the inspiration 
of the Divine Love, rejected every temptation of the maternal 
human, and accepted the Divine in its place, until there was 
no more anything left from the mother, but all was from the 
Divine, Divine-human, one with the Father, with no thought, 
no desire but His, and was Himself made manifest to men. 
At the same time we understand how, in overcoming the ten- 
dency of the human nature to sin, He gained the means of 
being forever present with us in full power to overcome our 
tendency, provided we accept His aid; and that thus He 
saves all who will accept His salvation, who will from Him 
resist the Devil and their own self-will, and obey His com- 
mands ; for therein they suffer Him to put away their evil 
will and accept His will, first in their interior, spiritual mind, 
and at last in the external, natural mind, being born again 
of both water and of the Spirit. 

Swedenborg, in his investigation of the constitution of 
matter, was early struck with the necessity of recognizing one 
degree within another. In his Principia he asserted that 
there are three atmospheres proceeding from the sun, — one 
more subtile and within another, and the medium of a more 
subtile force. 1 Later, in the study of the human body, with a 
view to learning the seat and the operation of the soul, he 
found himself more and more impressed with the imma- 
nence of one degree of substance and action within another, 
until, some years before his illumination, before the spiritual 
world was open to him or he thought of studying theology, he 
wrote, as we have seen, on the doctrine of discrete degrees 
and on the correspondence of one degree with another. He 
now saw that the spirit was of a decree distinct from and within 
that of the body, with a perfect correspondence between one 
and the other ; and he was persuaded that this correspond- 
ence was the hieroglyphic key to the inward meaning of the 

1 The physicists of the present day have not yet made out the three, but 
they find a certainty of two, with at least a possibility of a third. 



INNER SENSE OF SCRIPTURE. 213 

Scriptures. To the unfolding of this he cast a longing eye. 
But before this was given him to do, he had to learn by expe- 
rience the discrete degrees in the mind, the spiritual discretely 
within and above the natural, the one living voluntarily from 
the Lord, the other from and for itself. 1 This he learned, 
when ready, by being lifted nearer to the Lord and being 
shown in His light the sinfulness of the natural will, by which 
he was led to pray and strive with all his might for deliver- 
ance, until at last he had the happiness of feeling, from the 
Divine Presence in the spiritual mind, that he no longer de- 
sired to live from His own will, but only from the Lord's. 
In the outer mind, connected with the body, there was still 
something of sadness ; but within there was joy and peace. 
Thus then Swedenborg was trained, both by theory and by 
experience, to appreciate and unfold the Gospel doctrine of 
the incarnation and redemption. 

The Scriptures are the Word of God. This Word is clothed 
in human ideas and human language, just as, for personal 
manifestation, God clothed Himself in human nature and a 
human body. In no other way could man hear or see Him. 
Both the verbal and the personal revelations are for man's 
eternal salvation. Their use to him does not end with this 
world, but endures to eternity ; for Divinity Itself is hardly 
less incomprehensible and invisible to our spirit than to our 
body ; for the one It needs a human clothing as much as 
for the other. This needs to be learned, for it has not been 
understood ; but it is evident to any one who rightly consid- 
ers how incomprehensible Infinity must be to finite humanity 
in all conditions. In heaven, as well as on earth, the Divine 
Presence is in the Holy Word and in the now Divine Human- 
ity. The Word of God must be full of Divine and angelic 

1 In his theological works we find Swedenborg constantly referring to man's 
firoprium. No English word is adequate to express his meaning, which is, 
imperfectly stated, man's permitted proprietorship and field of free action, with- 
in and about himself, in which is his power of reaction towards the Divine ; in 
short, the very ground of his free-will. This, originally with Swedenborg a 
philosophic discovery, is the groundwork of his spiritual philosophy. 



214 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

meaning, within the letter, as the Humanity of our Lord was 
full of the Divinity ; and it is the ladder by which man may 
climb up into heaven, by which his mind may be opened 
upward through successive degrees into the thoughts of the 
angels with whom his home is prepared. Such preparation 
and such association is the use and the happiness of this 
world, too long foregone, but to be bestowed in the Holy 
City that is to descend from God out of heaven. More pre- 
cisely, the understanding of the Word which the angels have, 
in which they live and move and have their being, is itself the 
Holy City to come down out of heaven, to be the tabernacle 
of God with men ; and this descent of the Holy City is 
again the coming of the Lord, to the understanding of men, 
in the clouds of heaven, the literal sense, with power and 
great glory. 

By what means shall the descent be made ? No new Word 
is to be given. That which reaches from the beginning of 
the world to the millennium, and was fulfilled in the personal 
manifestation of the Divinity, is all we can need. But we are 
to be taught to understand this as angels understand it. How 
shall we be taught? Shall we imagine angels coming down 
upon earth to teach us ? How shall we see and hear them ? 
It cannot be done with the eyes and ears of the body. These 
cannot apprehend spirit. Nor is it conceivable that angels, 
like the Lord Himself, should be incarnated for the purpose. 
There is a far simpler way : though angels have not a material 
form, men have within their material form a spirit with its 
spiritual form and senses, so enwrapped as to be unseen and 
almost unknown. For man, then, to be taught by angels, 
nothing is necessary but that a separation should be made 
between his bodily senses and those of the spirit, and that the 
latter should be opened to their proper use. That this has 
been given many times of yore, we know from the Bible and 
from history. The question remains whether, for the descent 
of the Holy City, this favor should be granted to the many, or 
to but one in their behalf. It may be well, before forming an 



FIRST NOTION ABOUT SPIRITS. 21 5 

opinion on this question, to read attentively the unfoldings of 
the Word made through Swedenborg, and to learn the wisdom 
necessary, and the Divine guidance, in order that the angelic 
meaning may reach us in its integrity. We may then con- 
clude that,- although in Swedenborg's case no inexplicable 
miracle was given, and the means used for his enlightenment 
were no other than might be used at any time for the enlight- 
enment of others, it was, as he says, of Divine Providence, 
that he was specially prepared for the work and protected in 
its performance, in order that the foundations of the City 
might be deeply, securely laid, and that our introduction into 
it may be made sure. And let it not be forgotten that, ac- 
cording to Swedenborg, the right understanding of the Word, 
the presence in it of the Lord Himself, can be given by Him 
alone, by the light of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. 
"No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was 
able to open the Book ; " but only "the Lion of the tribe of 
Judah, the Root of David." 

How slowly, step by step, Swedenborg came to a full com- 
prehension of the conditions of the other world is evident in 
his manner of speaking of the forms of spirits. When he first 
saw one, he called him " a man." This, as we have seen, was 
in April, 1745. In December he writes, — 

"Spirits do not perceive otherwise than that they are in 
human shape, thus in a body with skin, bones, and blood, 
when yet it was shown them that they cannot retain those 
things which are of no use. . . . When they hear this they 
perceive indeed that they have no use for them, but still that 
they retain the shape. . . . But what their proper form is, 
is indeed unknown ; and yet from the least organs of the 
brain, where are the beginnings of the form of the body, it 
may be in some degree concluded that the forms are not dis- 
similar from those ; and that still they can be restored into a 
likeness of the human form as often as they direct their mind 
to it by thoughts." (S. D. 355.) 



2l6 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

The same idea of spirits, as not having the human form 
except by fantasy, or fiction of thought, appears frequently, 
together with a similar notion in regard to their surround- 
ings, their garments, animals, etc. In October, 1748, he 
writes again, — 

"I have spoken concerning the form which spirits have, 
because they do not know in what form they are other than 
the human, and said that the inmosts of the spirit aspire to a 
form like the human body, . . . but still that it is in a much 
more perfect form applicable and fitting to heavenly life. 
. . . But it is manifest that they are not bodies, because 
bodies are like the worm forms, and are indeed food for 
worms. . . . Wherefore forms of spirits are much more per- 
fect, and that they are represented as human forms is for a 
cause concerning which above ; but what the forms of spirits 
are, for various causes it has not been given me to know." 
(S. D. 3472.) 

This idea of the form of the soul, as something which, 
though the cause of the form of the body, was distinct from 
it and superior, as that of the butterfly to that of the worm, 
was Swedenborg's old philosophic idea, as expressed in his 
treatise about the soul. At that time he had penetrated so 
far as to regard the outer coverings of the soul, and even the 
rational mind, as of inner material substance, which would be 
cast off, not at once, but gradually, after death. The soul 
would then be pure intelligence, without a body, of which it 
would have no need, yet having an ethereal form of its own, 
and capable of taking the human form upon itself on occa- 
sion. And now for three years and a half he had been in the 
habit of seeing spirits, sometimes every day, and had not 
yet learned what he afterwards constantly taught, that the 
bodies in which he saw them were real, substantial, human 
bodies, not -indeed of material, but of spiritual substance, the 
inmost of the material. He had not yet got rid of his old 
idea of spirits as ghosts, either with no substantial form at all, 
or with a form of an unknown higher type. But though at 



LATER NOTIONS ABOUT SPIRITS. 



217 



this time he was already well advanced in writing the Arcana 
Ccelestia, few traces of this imperfect apprehension of spirits 
are observable in that work. In one place, however, we find 
him saying, — 

"The sound of the gnashing of teeth was heard [in the 
world of spirits] as manifestly as that of a man, which is 
strange, since they have not teeth." (A. C. 820, compare 

5387-) 

And again in sundry places in the "Diary" and in the 
"Arcana" 1 he speaks of spirits and angels as having no 
need for food, except for their minds, and as having all the 
senses which men have except that of taste, inferring this 
exception, probably, from his preconceived idea; whereas 
later he writes, — 

"They eat and drink there as in the natural world, but all 
the food is from a spiritual origin ; wherefore it is not pre- 
pared, but is daily given. . . . Because the food is from a 
spiritual origin, and thus in itself spiritual, and because spirits 
and angels are men, and endowed with a spiritual body, 
therefore such spiritual nourishment serves them : a spiritual 
being is thus nourished spiritually, and a material man ma- 
terially." (S. D. 6088.) "Good spirits and angels have teeth 
equally as men." (A. E. 556.) "They have similar taste and 
also smell." (S. D. vii. sec. 2, n. 3)4 -) 2 

The same slowness to apprehend the realities of the other 
world shows itself in the early remark that " Place, change of 
place, and distance in the other life are fallacies." (A.C. 1380.) 
Changes of place in the other world " are only apparent, and 
are nothing but changes of state, whilst the body remains in 
the same place." (A. C. 1273.) While later he says,— 

" Spirits and angels .... are substantial men, and live 
together like men of the natural world, upon spaces and in 
times which are determined according to the states of their 
minds." (T.C.R. 29.) 

1 See Spiritual Diary, 3567, 3998 ; Arcana Ccelestia, 1973. 

2 See also The Apocalypse Explained, 618 ; Heaven and Hell, 461. 



2l8 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

It has been well suggested 1 that this want of realization of 
spiritual facts coincided with Swedenborg's intellectual pres- 
ence in that world, with the senses of seeing and hearing 
therewith connected ; while as to the voluntary part of his 
mind, with which are connected the realizing senses of taste 
and touch, he remained in this world. Later, and then only 
occasionally, it was permitted him to be almost wholly with- 
drawn from the body, when all spiritual things became real 
to him. Of this state he says, — 

" The man is led into a certain state which is intermediate 
between sleep and waking, and when he is in this state he 
cannot know otherwise than that he is altogether awake ; all 
his senses are as wakeful as in the fullest wakefulness of the 
body, as well sight as hearing, and, what is wonderful, the 
touch, which then is more exquisite than can ever be given in 
the wakefulness of the body. In this state also spirits and 
angels have been seen altogether to the life, also heard, and, 
what is wonderful, touched ; and then almost nothing of the 
body intervened. It is this state of which it is said, ' to be 
withdrawn from the body, and not to know whether one is in 
the body or out of the body.' (2 Cor. xii. 2.) I have been 
let into this state only three or four times, that I might only 
know what it is, and at the same time that spirits and angels 
enjoy every sense, and also man when he is withdrawn from 
the body." (H. & H. 440 : in 1758.) 

Another illustration of the gradual growth of Swedenborg's 
understanding of spiritual things is found in the manner of his 
speaking of evil spirits and of the hells. In the Adversaria 
he says little about the hells, but frequently refers to the Devil 
and his crew. So, too, in the early portion of the "Diary" 
we find the Devil spoken of as having been created into a 
state of perfection, and as having fallen thence and being now 
kept in chains and only his crew let out. (S. D. 202 : Sept. 
23, 1747.) A year later, however, Swedenborg refers to what 

1 New Jerusalem Magazine, July, 1881. 



THE LOT OF EVIL SPIRITS. 219 

he had written of this kind as being so written in accordance 
with the belief of the whole Christian world (S. D. 3217); 
and perhaps this mention in n. 202 is the last of its kind. 

But the period of the "Diary" is the decade previous to 
the Judgment ; and the hells were open, their inmates in a 
measure unloosed. To Swedenborg's eyes "the angels or 
spirits of God Messiah were very few in comparison with 
those of a perverse disposition" (Adv. part iv. p. 211); and 
there were vast numbers of spirits who, infested with the evil, 
were either let down among them, as into their hells, or kept 
in what Swedenborg calls the lower earth, undergoing vasta- 
tion for their purification from evils, in preparation for ad- 
mission among the good. During these years Swedenborg 
visited them, heard their complaints, was permitted to com- 
fort them, and saw troops of them set free and raised up, 
under the care of angels, among the good. At this time he 
was most deeply impressed with two things : first, the sinful- 
ness of the human heart, on account of which, he still says in 
the old language, all men are condemned to eternal punish- 
ment (S. D. 2583) ; and, second, the infinite loving mercy 
of the Lord, which would save all. From this, and from what 
he sees going on, he insists stoutly, not only to himself but to 
the spirits of Jupiter (3489) and even to the angels of heaven 
(2826), that the Lord permits no punishment except as 
necessary means of reformation, and that there is no such 
thing as punishment to eternity. 1 

There are many indications that at this time, though he 
knew some had remained in their hells for ten or even twenty 
centuries, Swedenborg was persuaded that all would eventually 
be stripped of their desire to do evil, and would, with what 
little life remained, be taken up among the good, to perform 
such uses as are performed by almost lifeless bone. 2 Not 
only in the "Diary," but likewise in the first volume of the 

1 Spiritual Diary, 1039, 1074, 3528 end. 

2 See Spiritual Diary, 286, 1377, 1497, 2709, 2793, 2 %°3> 3°4i> 391°; 3912, 
3913, 3944, 4°3 8 , 4i ii, 43 2 8, 43 2 9- 



220 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

"Arcana," which was written in the same year, 1748, we find 
these indications. In n. 699 he speaks of comforting those 
in hell and the lower earth. From n. 827 to n. 831, and in 
n. 955, he describes the punishments of most abominable 
spirits, of several kinds, as lasting for hundreds of years, till 
they have little life left, or " conceive shame, terror, and horror 
for such practices " as they had been accustomed to. In en- 
tire harmony with this view is the common reading of n. 967 
of the "Arcana" : "When the wicked are punished, there are 
always angels present to regulate the punishment, and to alle- 
viate the pains of the sufferers as much as may be ; but they 
cannot remove them entirely, because such is the equilibrium 
of all things in another life, that evil punishes itself ; and un- 
less it were removed by punishments, the evil spirits must 
needs be kept in some hell to eternity, [as] otherwise they 
would infest the societies of the good, and do violence to the 
order appointed by the Lord, on which the safety of the 
universe depends." 

This agrees with passages already cited from the " Diary," 
some of which are referred to in the author's Index, as fol- 
lows : " Man is such that he has been condemned to hell to 
eternity • but of the mercy of the Lord, after punishments 
and vastations, he is taken out thence," n. 2583. "There 
was talk about hell, some thinking that those there will remain 
to eternity ; but [it was shown] that, since there is no pun- 
ishment except for an end, and the Lord, because Wisdom 
Itself, is the end, therefore nothing happens except for the 
end of good : also that man is condemned to hell, because 
he is nothing but evil ; but the Lord liberates him," n. 2823 
to 2827, and 2831, 2832. 

With these various indications of Svvedenborg's belief, in 
1 748, that all would eventually be brought out of hell, we 
know of nothing that distinctly indicates a contrary belief at 
that time. The references in the "Arcana" (311, 562, 581) 
to the wicked before the flood, as still shut away in a hell by 
themselves, are not decisive, since he plainly understands 



THE LOT OF EVIL SPIRITS. 221 

many centuries to be necessary for reformation in some cases. 
But we soon have signs of a modification of belief. After 
a year's experience with an exceedingly treacherous class of 
spirits, whom he calls sirens, in the latter part of 1 749 he 
speaks of them with no hope of their possible amendment. 
"The infernal ones, male and female, who receive nothing of 
amendment by punishments, are those who are borne towards 
hell. The most profane sirens, with the rest, were punished 
many times severely, so severely as can hardly be described 
for the various tortures, but yet they were afterwards the 
same, and then worse ; such are they who are borne to hell 
and fall in thither when filled with evils." There, he goes on 
to say, they suffer punishment and fear it, being punished by 
their like ; whereas in the world of spirits they had con- 
trived to evade it. "But those who are punished in the 
world of spirits, and receive amendment, are they who be- 
come better." (S. D. 4511-13.) 

About the same time he writes of the lot of the evil spirits 
that, after being suffered to practise their evil arts in the world 
of spirits for some years, " they concentrate their evils and 
become nothing but the evils of their kind, and what is good 
is then taken away from them, so that at length their wicked- 
ness is consummated," when they plunge into hell where are 
their like, and have no longing to rise into the world of 
spirits, for fear of punishment, but recede into their hells. 
There, after some centuries of mutual torment, their cor- 
poreal delights may become somewhat deadened, and they 
are then at times taken up into the world of spirits to serve 
for the vilest uses, with scanty life, and with scarcely any 
delight. " Such is the lot of the evil." (S. D. 4471.) 

At length, a few years later, we have in the "Arcana" the 
emphatic statement, with reason given, that — "They endure 
evils continually more severe, and this until they dare not 
harm any one; and afterwards they remain in hell forever. 
They cannot be released, because t]j^ will to do good to any 
one cannot be given them ; only to refrain from doing evil to 



222 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

any one from fear of punishment can be given, the desire 
always remaining." (A. C. 7541.) From this statement in 
all his subsequent writings, Swedenborg never departs. That 
he came to it gradually seems certain. But the difference be- 
tween it and the earlier view is not so great as might at first 
appear. The essential difference is, that, while from the first 
he perceived the necessity of long and dire punishment to 
subdue the evil desires of the very wicked, ending only with 
almost entire loss of vitality, he at first supposed that by 
superadded good they could eventually be brought into asso- 
ciation with good spirits and become a part of the " Greatest 
Man" 1 (S. D. 3041) • whereas, with further experience, he 
learned that the evil desires could never be entirely removed, 
but would remain the spirit of the little life left, and that 
they could have no part among the good. 

Connected with this first uncertainty as to the final dispo- 
sition of the wicked, and in part its ground, we find a want 
of clear distinction between the real inward state, or condi- 
tion, of the good and the evil. Regarding man's nature as 
tending always to evil, from which he is withheld by the 
Lord alone ; and regarding the good desires of the angels as 
superadded to them from the Lord (S. D. 2803-5), on the 
withdrawal of which they would lapse into the condition of 
evil spirits, — it was easy to think that saving grace would be 
eventually extended to all, and all would be gathered into the 
one fold. Swedenborg does not seem at this time to have 
realized, so fully as afterwards, the change made in the mental 
constitution by a man's consenting acceptance of the Divine 
grace ; and the essential difference between the loving use 
performed by the good, and what might be performed under 
compulsion by the evil ; or indeed between really good uses 
performed by the good, and vile or necessary evil uses per- 
formed under permission by the evil. He saw rightly from 
the first that punishments were not for past offences and to 

1 This expression is used by Swedenborg for the whole heaven taken as a 
one ; which is organized, he says, in the order of the human form. 



THE LOT OF EVIL SPIRITS. 223 

eternity, but only for present withholding from evil and while 
necessary : and that the end would be restraint from evil and 
the performance of use, even the meanest, to the rest of 
mankind. That among the vast multitudes in the world of 
spirits undergoing punishment by devils for the Divine pur- 
pose of their reformation, there were some, nay many, who 
would never suffer themselves to be reformed, would never 
give up their desire for evil, and who must therefore always 
remain in their hells, is what he seems not at first to have 
clearly apprehended. 

In this hesitation, or reluctance, perhaps no one of Sweden- 
borg's readers does not sympathize. We would all fain be- 
lieve that no human creature can fail to be impressed in the 
end into his Lord's kingdom. But we must all recognize the f 
freedom of choice given man as vital, absolute, and eternal.; 
The manner of exercise of the choice is, then, simply a matter 
of fact and experience, in which Swedenborg is our tutor ; and 
our own desire or reason can hardly gainsay what he has told 
us. We cannot but fear that the tale is "owertrue." We 
have, however, the consolation of inferring that in time the 
condition of the unfortunate ones ceases to be that of pun- 
ishment and suffering ; that their life becomes comparatively 
harmless, by submission to restraint; and that if its delight 
is reduced to almost nothing, it is all the world to them, and 
what, because it is their very self, they would not exchange 
for the lot of any other beings. Moreover, we have Sweden- 
borg's assurance that even in their lowest condition they 
never cease to be an object of pity and care to angels and 
to the Lord Himself. 

These instances of Swedenborg's gradual development of 
ideas and doctrine are not exceptional ; they are rather the 
rule, covering nearly the whole field of his spiritual instruc- 
tion. In a note to n. 43 of his little treatise on the Worship 
and Love of God, after describing the instinctive knowledge 
and capacities into which brute animals are born, and con- 



224 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

trasting therewith the ignorance and helplessness of infant 
men, he says, — 

" It was altogether otherwise in our first-begotten, whose 
rational or intellectual mind was not to be instructed and 
perfected in a similar manner, or from the bodily senses, but 
from the soul itself, while the sensories of the body only ad- 
ministered and were subservient : for he was born into a state 
of the greatest integrity, and into perfections themselves." 

Again in a note to n. 52, after describing the synthetical 
and the analytical ways of learning, he says, — 

" It appears that the intellectual mind of Adam, while all 
things were excited from their first auspices to last, was in- 
structed by the synthetic way, from the soul first, and after- 
wards from its senses ; wherefore now he is said to have met 
his understanding, or the intelligences who were coming to 
him. The case is otherwise in his posterity, in whom the 
rational mind, which had altogether no existence in infancy, 
is first, as it were, to be constructed, or opened from the 
senses, before it can be instructed ; for it is perfected by age, 
through the benefit of experience, which is of the senses, and 
afterwards of the sciences, conceived and brought forth from 
the experience of the senses." 

And in another note to the same number, — 

" That our first-begotten was able to know what is good, 
or goodnesses, from an internal sense, is sufficiently evident 
from the formation of his mind, and from causes which follow 
in their series ; for the minds of those who live in the love of 
the Supreme not only see, but also feel the affections of its 
goodnesses, and consequently have their understanding clearly 
enlightened by truths ; wherefore from a sense of goodness 
the knowledge of all truths flows ; ... he who comprehends 
superior goodnesses by an inmost sense has no need to run 
over that spacious plain of investigation, or to make his way 
through masses of truths, because he is in the knowledge of 
goodness itself, or, as it were, at the goal, from whence he 
can widely view and freely contemplate the whole field." 



GROWTH OF IDEAS. 225 

Three or four years later in the Arcana Ccelestia, n. 1902, 
Swedenborg wrote,- — 

" If man were imbued with jio hereditary evil, then the 
rational would be born immediately from the marriage of the 
celestial things of the internal man with its spiritual things, 
and through the rational would be born the scientific, so that 
man would have with him all the rational and all the scientific 
immediately on coming into the world." 

Sixteen years after this was published in the "Arcana," the 
following more guarded statement was printed in The Divine 
Provide?ice, n. 275 : — 

" The love into which man was created is the love of the 
neighbor. . . . This love is truly human ; for in it there is 
what is spiritual, by which it is distinguished from natural 
love, which brute animals have. If man were born into that 
love, he would not be born into the thick- darkness of ignor- 
ance, as every man now is ; but into some light of science, 
and thence of intelligence, into which he would also shortly 
come." 

And in his crowning work, The True Christian Religion, 
published seven years after The Divine Providence, Sweden- 
borg gives at length a most interesting discussion on this 
subject, in an assembly in the other world, at which he was 
invited to be present. The topics of discussion were three,: 
First, " What is the image of 'God, and what the likeness of 
God, into which man was created?" Second, "Why is not 
man born into the science of any love, when yet beasts and 
birds, noble as well as ignoble, are born into the sciences of 
all their loves?" The third, about the tree of life, does not 
immediately concern our present subject. The conclusion 
upon the first question was, in brief, that man becomes an 
image of God according as he receives from Him ; and that 
he becomes a likeness of God from sensibly perceiving in 
himself that those things which are from God are in him as 
his, and yet that so much of this likeness becomes an image 
as acknowledges that all in him is not really his but the 

J 5 



226 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

Lord's. And the conclusion on the second question was, in 
full, — '-'That man is born into no science, in order that he 
may be able to come into them all, and advance to intelli- 
gence, and through this to wisdom ; and that man is born 
into no love, in order that he may be able to come into all, 
by applications of the sciences from intelligence, and into 
love to God through love towards the neighbor, and thus to 
be conjoined to God, and by that means to become a man, 
and to live to eternity." (T. C. R. 48.) 

The successive steps by which Svvedenborg's mind ad- 
vanced through reason and intelligence to wisdom are here 
beautifully shown. In the exercise of his reason he came to 
see the vast superiority of the down-look, from the high point 
of view given by sympathy with the Divine ends. His whole 
treatise on the Worship and Love of God is an overflow of 
joy in the reception and exercise of something of this faculty. 
To this is due its exuberant and sportive fancy. Nothing w r as 
more natural than to imagine that this gift, designed for man 
in his highest estate, was given to him at his first birth, when 
fresh from the hands of his Maker. A few years later, when 
learning in the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the 
development of the human mind, above all, of the Lord's 
own human mind, though he saw that even in this case the 
present order of development through the rational was fol- 
lowed, it was still clear to him that if man were born into 
love to the Lord and the neighbor, into that for which he 
was designed, he would find all rational and scientific knowl- 
edge at his feet. Later, in The Divine Providence, with pos- 
sibly more doubt as to what had been the primal fact, he still 
sees that if man were born into this love he would come 
into the light of such knowledge, and the knowledge itself 
would soon open to him. Last of all, in his crowning work, 
at the same time that he teaches, not as before, that the 
Father acts through the Son, but that, as the body from the 
soul, the Son acts from the Father, — he learns that to be in 
the likeness of God is to see what one has from God as one's 



GROWTH OF IDEAS. 



227 



own, thus to act as it were from one's self, at the same time 
that to be in the image of God is to acknowledge all one 
has, to be from Him. Coincidently he learns that the way in 
which he himself has been led, through science to intelligence 
and through intelligence to wisdom, as also through love 
towards the neighbor into love to God, — the way which he 
had found described in the history of Isaac as that in which 
our Lord suffered His own humanity to be led, — is the way 
which He has designed for all from the beginning ; the true 
and only way in which man can receive knowledge after 
knowledge, faculty after faculty, as his own, and yet learn to 
acknowledge them as from God alone, — in fact, come into 
both His image and His likeness. 

Swedenborg's idea was right from the first, as to the power 
of vision which would be given with the acceptance of the 
Divine inflowing spirit ; nor was he at all unmindful of the 
steps necessary for him, and for all others since Adam, to be 
led up to this state. What he did not seem to see till the 
last was, that it is of Divine order and necessity, in the very 
nature of man, for him to have his first conscious life in the 
neutral ground of ultimates, and to receive higher life and 
light, step by step, as he acquires power to recognize its 
source, at the same time that he feels it to be his own. 

These various examples of the gradual growth of spiritual 
ideas in Swedenborg's mind we have adduced, partly for their 
individual interest, but specially to illustrate the fact that the 
revelation given through him is a rational revelation, never 
forced upon him, but opened to him step by step, as his 
mind was enabled to comprehend it rationally. This is of 
first importance to be understood, both that the revelation 
may be seen in its right place in history, as the revelation 
given to man's now developed reason, and that its claims 
upon us may be recognized as addressed always to our rea- 
son. Swedenborg himself, while eagerly confessing with joy 
that his doctrine is not his own, but from the Lord, often ap- 
peals to the reason of his readers, begging them to examine 



228 OPENING OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

for themselves and see whether the doctrine be not true. 
This is indeed the very essence of the new revelation, — the 
rational recognition of spiritual truth, by the aid of the Spirit 
of Truth, with acknowledgment of its Divine Source. 

One day there appeared to Swedenborg a magnificent 
domed temple, with windows of crystal and gate of pearl ; 
and over the gate was written Nunc Licet. On consideration 
he perceived that the temple represented a Church, and in- 
deed the New Church that is to be, in which Now it is 
allowable to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith. 

The child accepts what he is taught in innocence and 
affection. The boy learns in obedience to his master. The 
youth reasons for himself, and asserts his own conclusions as 
the only standard of faith. The mature mind confesses its 
ignorance, humbles itself before the Divine Teacher, and 
gratefully accepts what He, with His Spirit, illumines before 
it as the truth, accordant with right reason and with heavenly 
love. The youthful stage of the Christian Church is passing 
by. The stage of ripe manhood is opening before us ; but it 
is not entered without trial and temptation, — trial of the 
heart whether it will submit to be led by its Lord, and temp- 
tation of the intellect to throw off all allegiance, to assert its 
own supremacy, and to disbelieve all but its own independent 
vision. The trial and temptation endured, the gates open of 
themselves, and Nunc Licet. 



CHAPTER X. 

OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

As in his apprehension of the mysteries of the other world, 
so in his comprehension of the arcana of the Word of God, 
we find Swedenborg's progress to have been slow and grad- 
ual, in orderly, rational development. As soon as he learned 
that this was the work designed for him, he left unfinished the 
essay on the Worship and Love of God, and began to study 
Hebrew and the Old Testament, using both the original and 
Schmidt's Latin version. In a few months he was writing 
notes in explanation of Genesis which he did not publish, 1 
but which are of interest as showing the steps by which he 
arrived at the understanding of the interior sense which he 
afterwards published in his Arcana Ccelestia. 

In the first notes, entitled " The History of the Creation 
Handed Down by Moses," the first chapter of Genesis is 
explained from beginning to end in only the sense of the 
letter, as referring simply to the creation of the material 
world. No other thought appears in Swedenborg's mind. 
In the second chapter he begins with referring to his little 
work on the Worship and Love of God, but says that all 
human speculations are unreliable, except so far as they coin- 
cide with revelation ; and so he submits the statements in 
this little treatise to the test of what he is now learning in 
these first chapters of Genesis. He is surprised, pleasantly no 
doubt, with the agreement he finds. He then proceeds with 
his explication in the same way as in the first chapter, until, 

1 Published by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, under the title of Adversaria in Libros 
Veteris Testamenti, 1842-54. 



230 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

in the ninth verse, new light seems to break upon him. In 
the preceding verse he doubts whether Adam was born in the 
Garden of Eden, or created elsewhere and brought into it ; 
but he wisely concludes that belief one way or the other is 
not an article of salvation. And then, in unfolding the ninth 
verse, without preamble he declares it to be plain enough 
that the earthly paradise represented heavenly paradise, " for 
there is nothing given on earth to which there is not some- 
thing corresponding in heaven." The way now opens before 
him, and he goes through this chapter and the next, finding 
spiritual significance in almost every verse, not inconsistent 
with what he afterwards published, though less clear and 
more hampered by the letter. At the end of the third chap- 
ter, however, he writes and underscores the words, — "These 
thi?igs have been premised. But let us search the Scriptures 
chiefly with this intent, that we may investigate the kingdom 
of God, what it is to be, and the many things which pertain to 
it. The Scriptures not here and there but everywhere treat of 
the kingdom of God, for indeed this was the end of the creation 
of all things, as well of heaven as of earth." In pursuance 
of this intent he seems now to have filled thirty-two folio 
pages with Bible passages under the following heads : — 
"i. The Messiah about to come into the world. 2. The 
Messiah who is about to come a second time to restore the 
Jews. 3. The Kingdom of God. 4. Babylon." To these 
pages he gave the title, The Messiah about to Come into the 
World ; and the Kingdom of God. 1 

Then he goes back and starts again with the first chapter 
of Genesis, assured that it inwardly contains the plan of the 
redemption of man by the Lord, but unable to advance much 
beyond the interior literal sense in many of the particulars. 
Even when he comes to the Flood and the saving of Noah in 
the ark, though he is full of the recognition of the Lord's 
Divine providence for the human race, and for the establish- 
ment of His Divine kingdom, his ideas still remain fixed in 

1 Not printed in the Adversaria, but photo-lithographed by R. L. Tafel. 



IDEA OF THE TRINITY. 23 I 

the letter ; he thinks only of a flood of waters and of a single 
family preserved in an ark of wood. The phrases of the old 
theology in which he had been trained are continually crop- 
ping out, as when he says that the posterity of Ham, because 
they took possession of the Holy Land, represented the 
Devil, who invaded heaven. This is still more remarkable in 
what he says of the Supreme Being. He refers constantly to 
the three persons of the Trinity, notwithstanding his having 
learned by spiritual experience that all prayer should be ad- 
dressed to the Lord Jesus Christ. God, the Father, is still 
to him the impersonation of justice, while He effects all crea- 
tion through His only-begotten Son, who is the Logos, or 
Sermo, the unwritten Word. And at times, as when the cove- 
nant is made with Noah, he labors to show that it was made 
by the three persons, — by Jehovah, the Father ; by God, the 
Son ; and by the Holy Spirit, — inasmuch as it is declared 
the third time. 

We must, however, bear in mind that, by his own state- 
ment (T. C. R. 16), from his earliest years he could never 
admit into his mind the idea of more Gods than one, but 
always received and retained the idea of one God alone. 
Hence we must suppose that the tri-personal idea was with 
him but an external one, not much more than a form of 
speech, a distinction of office, not of character. In The Wor- 
ship and Love of God he says that the Father begat the Son 
as a mediator, by whom man might approach Him, — a state- 
ment not far from the truth. In the Adversaria the justice 
of the Father is loving, not vindictive, justice, and the love 
with which the Son pleads for mercy for men is inspired by 
the Father, who longs to grant the mercy. Sometimes the 
justice itself is attributed to the Son, and it is important to 
observe that the Lord the Messiah was continually before 
him. He saw Him as the present means of the creation, as 
the predicted conqueror of the serpent, as represented in His 
death by Abel, as vainly imitated in the establishment of His 
Holy City by the Devil's attempt at Babel, and as the very 



232 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

end in view in the selection and care of Abraham. In the 
following passage it will be seen how near he comes to what 
he afterwards saw and published in detail, that in Abraham's 
life throughout was represented the infancy and childhood 
of our Lord on earth : — 

" In Abram, as in a mirror in which a type and image 
appear, are represented the effigies of things which are to 
come, both of this world and of heaven ; but the Messiah 
and His kingdom are the very effigy itself, — the rest are only 
types which come in succession. Wherefore not even the 
least thing occurs in the life of this parent of the Israelites, 
Abram, which is not representative or typical of what is about 
to come, in the Jewish community first, then in those that 
are to follow, even to the last times when the thing itself in 
its own light and effigy will stand forth to view." (Adv. 164.) 

How present our Lord was to Swedenborg's mind appears 
further from his perceiving that it was "the Only-Begotten 
of God, the Messiah," who was seen by Abram : — 

" Therefore, because Abram saw, not the type, but the very 
effigy itself, that is, the King Himself, who should introduce 
his posterity and the nations into the promised land and into 
His kingdom, to Him he built an altar. He, because He is 
the image of His Father, is here as in the following passages 
called also Jehovah : The?-efo7-e he built an altar there to 
Jehovah who appeared to him. This is the day and the 
coming of the Messiah'which Abram saw and was glad. Nay, 
Abram, when first the land was promised to him and his 
posterity by the Messiah King Himself, is led away to the 
place where the Messiah should be born, even to Bethlehem. 
. . . Touched and moved by the holiness of the place, the 
father of the Israelites fixed his abode there for a time, built 
an altar, called upon God, and thus celebrated His day and 
His coming." (Adv. part i. 166, 167.) 

And again, with appreciation of what the presence of the 
Lord required, he says of Abram, now named Abraham, — 

"When, therefore, Abraham had seen his Messiah, and 



THE FULNESS OF THE WORD OF GOD. 233 

indeed now in the human form, which He was about to put 
on, straightway he first offered Him that which signifies this 
human nature and its purification, namely, the washing of 
the feet; for the things which are outmost, or with which 
interior things are clothed, are those which relate to nature, 
and by which spiritual things are enclosed. Such things also 
circumcision involves. But the lowest part of all is the sole 
of the foot, which is washed for the sake of that representa- 
tion ; and thus with men that is purged away which adheres 
to nature, as was also afterwards instituted by the Messiah 
Himself. Abraham under the tree begged suppliantly that 
this might be done, for the sake of the memory of the tree of 
life upon which his posterity were to be engrafted : there- 
fore said father Abraham, Let a little water be accepted, I pray, 
and wash your feet, and rest under the tree. (Adv. 199.) 

A little later, amazed at the infinity of meaning which he 
begins to find hidden in the Word of God, he exclaims, — 

" Believe me, O readers, for I speak the truth, that in every 
word, yea in every jot of an expression that comes forth from 
the mouth of Jehovah God, there are most hidden things, and 
so all-embracing as to contain in themselves in the present 
an infinite series from eternity to eternity, the things which 
are and the things which are to come, from the beginning of 
heaven and earth even to their end. For whatever Jehovah 
speaks by His Word and Holy Spirit, is He Himself therein ; 
thus what is infinite, that is, infinite things which never come 
forth into the light before human minds. The things which 
are revealed are only a very few, and hardly a very few. Yet 
not even these lie open except when the Sun rises, that is, 
Jehovah God, who is the Sun of wisdom, and enlightens 
with some rays of His own light minds that dwell in densest 
shadow." 

This perception that every syllable of the Word of God 
contained the Divine fulness, was one of the keys given to 
Swedenborg for unlocking its mysteries. To this were added 
his discovery that everything in the Word presented something 



234 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

of the great end in view from the beginning, — the judgment 
and salvation by the Lord of the human race ; his long- 
cherished doctrine that every outward thing is the repre- 
sentative and correspondent of some inward thing ; and his 
consciousness that while all good depends on love to the 
Lord and the neighbor, all evil depends on love to self and 
the world. It is interesting to mark the steps by which, with 
these guides, the meaning of the Word opened before him, 
illustrated continually by the information communicated to 
him by the spirits and angels with whom his studies brought 
him into company. 

At the same time we realize with what peril the task would 
have been undertaken without the constant guidance of the 
Holy Spirit. Swedenborg himself became deeply sensible of 
this, and gives frequent warning of the danger of trusting to 
the suggestions of spirits. It may be questioned whether it 
would have been possible for him to be sufficiently on his 
guard, without such open vision as he had of the company 
about him. While the explanation of the Word that he was 
to learn and teach was the spiritual sense, in which it is un- 
derstood in the other world, and while it was essential for his 
understanding of it that he should be in open communica- 
tion with spirits and angels, it was no less important that he 
should be protected from the persuasion of any, and that 
he should receive the truth into his rational understanding 
under the sole guidance of the Spirit of Truth. 

In this, as in everything else he learned and taught, he was 
the pioneer for us all. In the new age of the Church, while 
we are to enter rationally into the mysteries of faith and of 
Scripture, and while we are to realize the presence and in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, we need to know what Sweden- 
borg learned of the constant influence of spirits about us, of 
the danger of trusting to them, and of the necessity of look- 
ing to the Law and to the Testimony for guidance by the 
Spirit of Truth. 

On this subject the Church has had little knowledge. Men 



THE DIVINE CONTROL. 235 

have recognized but two spirits, — that of the Lord and that 
of the Evil One. Too often inspiration with some apparent 
good purpose has been claimed to be from the Lord, when 
in fact there was within it vain-glory and fantasy. Sweden- 
borg himself at first, as we have already seen, knew only of 
"the Spirit," meaning the Holy Spirit, and the Tempter. He 
had to learn that between the two are infinite grades of 
angels and spirits, whose influence may partake of tnat of 
both at the same time. Even the angels, he says, were 
tempters of the Lord in His human nature, from the imper- 
fection that clung to them. Spirits and angels innumerable 
he found pressing about him, as about all men, and ready 
to inspire his mind, if not his body, with their own peculiar 
thoughts and impulses. They would even impel and guide 
his pen, did he surrender the control to them. 

Now shone forth to him the power and the goodness, 
the wisdom and the near presence, of the Lord his Saviour. 
Infinite control he saw to be in the Divine hands, by reason 
that all life and power, even that of the lowest devil, pro- 
ceeded from the Divine Life and Power alone, — proceeded 
as a stream from its fountain, however defiled on its way ; so 
that the instant the supply should be cut off, that instant 
angel, spirit, man, or devil would cease to be. The unerring 
wisdom by which all these contending forces are moderated 
and counterbalanced so as to be in equilibrium about every 
sane man, in order that his freedom may be preserved, his 
character and powers developed, and his salvation if possible 
effected, is study for angels to eternity. It is the Divine wis- 
dom in its application to men revealed in the Word of God, 
incarnated in the Son of Man. The goodness, the love, and 
the mercy with which the Lord stands at the door of every 
man's heart, seeking through tire reason He has given him 
to enter and guide him in the way of His own salvation, was 
to Swedenborg beyond all expression. 

From a multitude of passages in the Adversaria bearing 
on these points, let us select a few : — 



236 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

" A crowd of many kinds and species of spirits I have been 
surrounded with by turns, as also of those who died many 
ages ago, in order that of the Divine mercy of God Messiah 
I might learn the nature of spirits and how they operate, and 
that God Messiah disposes and rules them all wholly accord- 
ing to His pleasure, which by the experience of so many 
months could not but become known to me " (iii. 135). 

" Whatever is thought should be directed to God Messiah, 
because all things come from Him ; for nothing ever in the 
world comes before the senses, nothing in interior natural 
things before the natural mind, nothing in most interior 
things before the spiritual mind, which does not have respect 
to the kingdom of God Messiah, and so to God Messiah 
Himself" (v. 535). "No one ever becomes free until he 
becomes the servant of God Messiah ; for then he is ruled 
to the true and best end, and he is wise and is affected with 
love for the end" (v. 834). 

"Influx is from the inmost into what is called the more 
interior, and from this into the interior class. He who is not 
in order has no perception of the things which are inmost, 
that is, we may say, of what are Divine ; but he who is held 
in order perceives the least assents and dissents in the affec- 
tions and persuasions, whenever they are formed by evil 
angels, or by those who have evil in themselves : so that 
there is a certain dissent in inmosts, whatever persuasion is 
induced ; and this has happened to me so frequently that the 
times cannot be numbered. . . . This very day, when I was 
led by persuasions to believing about a certain matter that it 
was so, I yet perceived inmostly as it were that the spirit was 
a deceiver, who was to be shunned" (vi. 2056). 

Speaking of the presence of the Lord on Mount Sinai, in 
the Tabernacle, and in the Temple, he says, — 

" God Messiah is everywhere, but is in holy places with 
more and other power, of truth and love, than elsewhere. . . . 
Hence also in the prayer of the benediction it is prayed that 
He may look upon us, when yet He sees always, even the 



PEACE FROM THE LORD. 237 

least things in the universe. . . . This presence by the Divine 
mercy of God Messiah it has been granted me to perceive. 
... It is an inmost affection which can in no way be de- 
scribed, and if described with many words it could not be 
exhausted" (v. 1261-62). 

Speaking of the peace of the benediction, he says, — 

" In this peace there is nothing at all of quiescence, but 
very life. . . . Something of this peace has been given me 
by the Divine mercy of the Lord to experience, but I testify 
sacredly that no tongue can ever express it. For it is the 
complex of all happiness, with the highest life, freed from the 
life which is wont to spring up from desires, bodily pleasures, 
care and anxiety about things that are to come. It is to be 
in the bosom of God Messiah" (vii. 6924-25). 

Such peace came to him after enduring spiritual tempta- 
tions from evil spirits, by which he learned more and more 
fully that the sole deliverance from evil is the Lord : — 

"As regards the temptations of the Devil, they are so 
wicked and horrible that they can in no way be described. 
His most crafty machinations are unspeakable, and beyond 
man's power to apprehend ; for evil always puts on an ap- 
pearance to mislead man. Hence unless man is guarded by 
God Messiah, he can in no wise escape, not even the least 
moment, from falling headlong into damnation. But the 
temptations, which are many, that I have learned by experi- 
ence, are to be rather consigned to deep oblivion than pub- 
lished to men ; for all minds [of themselves] must needs 
fall. By this experience I have learned this, — that unless God 
Messiah had liberated me from these extreme temptations, 
which in my belief I could by no means sustain, I should 
have fallen into utter damnation. To the liberation my own 
powers could not contribute in the least ; they would have 
plunged me into damnation, unless God Messiah with His 
own aid had been present with me" (vii. 7529). 

"With regard to myself, as has been given me to perceive 
clearly, I could not but succumb to all [such temptations] ; 



238 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

for when brought to a certain point, as for myself I suc- 
cumbed ; but yet was raised up by God Messiah. The temp- 
tations, I think, have been brought to me for a good end, so 
that I might clearly perceive that man can in no wise sus- 
tain temptations, not even the least of them, from himself. 
Wherefore it is the work of God Messiah alone that man is 
sustained in temptations " (v. 7509). 

It is of importance to know in what way Swedenborg now 
received his instruction as to the Divine things he was learn- 
ing and beginning to teach. In regard to the nature of 
things in the other world, he was continually gaining informa- 
tion from, as he says, "things heard and seen." But, he also 
says emphatically, " they who speak from permission of the 
Lord, never speak anything which takes away freedom of rea- 
son, nor teach ; for the Lord alone teaches man, but medi- 
ately through the Word in illustration. ... I have had speech 
with spirits and with angels now for many years, neither has 
any spirit dared, nor any angel wished, to tell me anything, 
still less to instruct me concerning anything in the Word, 
or concerning any doctrine from the Word ; but the Lord 
alone has taught me, — who was revealed to me, and after- 
wards continually appeared and now appears before my eyes 
as a sun in which Lie is, as He appears to the angels, — 
and has enlightened me" (D. P. 135). Again, in his last 
complete work, The True Christian Religion, he attests that 
he has never received anything relating to the doctrines of 
the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, 
while he was reading the Word (n. 779). This, indeed, he 
expressly and elaborately shows to be the way, and the only 
way, in which man is at this day taught Divine things : — 

" Illustration is as follows : Light conjoined to heat flows 
in through heaven from the Lord. This heat, which is 
Divine love, affects the will, whence man has the affection of 
good ; and this light, which is Divine wisdom, affects the un- 
derstanding, whence man has the thpught of truth. From 



ILLUSTRATION FROM THE LORD. 239 

these two fountains, which are the will and understanding, all 
things of the love and all things of man's science are affected, 
but only those things are excited and presented to view 
which relate to the subject. Thus illustration is effected by 
the Word from the Lord, in which Word everything derived 
from the spiritual within communicates with heaven, and 
the Lord flows in through heaven, and into that which is at 
the time under man's view. ... To be illustrated through 
heaven from the Lord is to be illustrated by the Holy Spirit, 
for the Holy Spirit is the Divine proceeding from the Lord 
as a sun, from which heaven is." (A. E. 177. ) 

" All such [who love truths and will them from the Lord] 
are illustrated, or enlightened, when they read the Word ; for 
the Lord is in the Word, and speaks with every one accord- 
ing to his comprehension : if these hear speech from spirits, 
which also they do occasionally, they are not taught but are 
led, and this so providentially that the man is still left to him- 
self, since, as was before said, every man is led of the Lord 
by affections, and thinks from them as from himself, in free- 
dom. If this were not the case, man would not be capable 
of reformation, neither could he be enlightened. But men 
are enlightened variously, every one according to the quality 
of his affection and consequent intelligence : those who are 
in the spiritual affection of truth are elevated into the light 
of heaven, so as to perceive the illustration, or enlightenment. 
It has been given me to see it, and from it to perceive dis- 
tinctly what comes from the Lord, and what from the angels ; 
what comes from the Lord is written [by me], and what 
comes from the angels is not written." (A. E. 11 S3.) 

The conclusion of this paragraph, though not precisely to 
our present purpose, is so clear and concise a statement of 
the author's mission, that we do not like to omit it : — 

"Moreover it has been given me to discourse with the 
angels as man with man, and likewise to see the things which 
are in the heavens and which are in the hells. The reason 
was because the end of the present Church is approaching, 



240 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. » 

and the beginning of a new one is at hand, which will be the 
New Jerusalem, to which it is to be revealed that the Lord 
rules the universe, both heaven and the world; that there 
is a heaven and a hell, and what is the quality of each ; that 
men live also as men after death, — in heaven those who have 
been led of the Lord, in hell those who have been led of 
themselves ; that the Word is the Divine itself of the Lord in 
the earth ; also that the last judgment is passed, — lest man 
should expect it in this world to eternity; besides many 
other things which are effects of the light now arising after 
darkness." 

The nature of the spiritual affection for truth, to which the 
enlightenment described is granted, is more fully set forth in 
these words : — 

"They who read the Word from a spiritual affection of 
truth, which is the love of knowing truth because it is truth, 
see the truths of the Word and rejoice in heart when they see 
them. The reason is because they are enlightened from the 
Lord. This illumination descends from the Lord through 
heaven from the light there, which light is Divine truth ; to 
them therefore it is given to see truths from their own light, 
and this in the Word, because the Word is Divine truth, and 
in it are treasured up all the truths of heaven. But they 
alone are in this light who are in the two loves of heaven, 
which are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor ; 
for these loves open the interior or superior mind, which is 
formed to receive the light of heaven, and through which that 
light flows in and enlightens them." (A. E. 177.) 

Since the enlightenment or illumination here described is 
not only the very grace enjoyed by Swedenborg, but also 
that by which all spiritual discernment of truth is given, and 
in effect the very coming of the Lord promised to the disci- 
ples, as the Spirit of Truth, we will copy some further illustra- 
tions of its nature and quality, as set forth in the explications 
of the "Arcana" : — 

"By — And I have filled him with the spirit of God — 



ILLUSTRATION FROM THE LORD. 241 

(Ex. xxxi. 3) is signified influx and illustration from Divine 
truth. . . . Influx and illustration are effected in this manner : 
man is such that as to his interiors, which are of the thought 
and will, he can look downwards and can look upwards ; to 
look downwards is to look outwards into the world and to 
himself, and to look upwards is to look inwards to heaven 
and to God. Man looks outwards from himself, which is 
called looking downwards, since when he looks from himself 
he looks to hell; but man looks inwards not from himself 
but from the Lord, which is called upwards, because he is 
then elevated as to his interiors, which are of the will and 
understanding, by the Lord to heaven, thus to the Lord : 
the interiors also are actually elevated, and then are actually 
withdrawn from the body and from the world. When this 
is effected, the interiors of man really come into heaven, and 
into its light and heat : hence he has influx and illustration ; 
the light of heaven illuminates the understanding, for that 
light is Divine truth, which proceeds from the Lord as a sun ; 
and the heat of heaven enkindles the will, for that heat is the 
good of love which proceeds together with the light from the 
Lord as a sun. Since man is then among the angels, there 
is communicated to him from them, that is, through them 
from the Lord, the intelligence of truth and the affection of 
good. This communication is what is called influx and 
illustration. But it is to be known that influx and illustra- 
tion are effected according to the faculty of reception with 
man, and the faculty of reception is according to the love of 
truth and of good. Wherefore they who are in the love of 
truth and of good for the sake of truth and good as ends, are 
elevated ; but they who are not in the love of truth and of 
good for the sake of truth and good, but for the sake of self 
and the world, inasmuch as they continually look and gravitate 
downwards, cannot be elevated, thus Cannot receive Divine 
influx out of heaven, and be illustrated." (A. C. 10,330.) 

" From the Lord proceeds Divine truth immediately and 
mediately : that which proceeds immediately is above all 

16 



242 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

understanding of the angels ; but that which proceeds medi- 
ately is adapted to the angels in heaven and also to men, for 
it passes through heaven and puts on thence an angelic and 
human quality. But into this truth the Lord flows also imme- 
diately, and thus leads angels and men as well immediately as 
mediately. . . . That there is immediate influx of the Lord 
where there is also mediate, — thus in the last of order as well 
as in its first, — has been told me from heaven, and a living 
perception of the thing has been given, as also that what 
takes place through heaven and the angels there is very little 
in comparison." (A. C. 7004.) "The Lord teaches every 
one by means of the Word, and grounds His teaching on 
the knowledges which man is in possession of, never infusing 
new ones immediately." (S. S. 26.) 

"Truth proceeding mediately from the Divine may be 
given with man, and yet this not be conjoined with truth 
which proceeds immediately from the Divine. . . . For ex- 
ample, the Prophets, through whom the Word was written, 
wrote as the spirit dictated from the Lord ; for the very 
words which they wrote were pronounced in their ears. With 
them was truth mediately proceeding from the Divine, that is, 
through heaven, but not therefore truth which proceeded im- 
mediately from the Divine ; for they did not have perception 
as to what everything signified in the internal sense. When 
these are conjoined, then, as has been said, perception is 
given. This conjunction is rarely given with men, but it is 
given with all who are in heaven, especially with those who 
are in the inmost or third heaven. It is not given with man 
unless he has been so far regenerated that he can be elevated 
from his sensual even towards his rational mind, and thus be 
set in the light of heaven where the angels are. With every 
man, indeed, there is Divine influx, as well immediate as 
mediate, but there is not conjunction except with those who 
have perception of truth from good ; for those with whom 
Divine immediate influx is conjoined with mediate suffer 
themselves to be led by the Lord, but those with whom these 



TRUTH FROM THE LORD. 243 

influxes are not conjoined lead themselves, — and this they 
love." (A. C. 7055.) 

" Conjunction of truth immediately proceeding from the 
Divine with truth which proceeds mediately cannot be given 
except in good, for good is the very ground. Truths are 
seeds which grow only in good as their ground. Good 
is also the very soul of truth; from good, truth exists as 
truth and lives. Truth which proceeds immediately from the 
Divine is called truth, but is in itself good, because it pro- 
ceeds from the Divine good, and it is good to which all truth 
Divine is united. It is called truth, because in heaven it ap- 
pears as light, but it is a sort of vernal light to which is united 
heat vivifying all things of the earth. From these things it 
may be evident also that the conjunction of truth proceeding 
immediately from the Lord with truth which proceeds medi- 
ately, cannot be given except in good, consequently except 
man be affected by truth for the- sake of truth, especially for 
the sake of good, thus for the sake of life ; for then man is in 
good. . . . Truth proceeding immediately from the Divine 
enters into the will of man, this is its way ; but truth which 
proceeds mediately from the Divine enters into the under- 
standing of man. Wherefore, conjunction cannot be effected 
unless the will and understanding act as one ; that is, unless 
the will wills good and the understanding confirms it by truth. 
When there is thus conjunction, the Lord appears as present, 
and His presence is also perceived. But when there is not 
conjunction, then the Lord is as if absent ; but His absence 
is not perceived, if it is not known from some perception 
what His presence is." (A. C. 7056.) 

"With regard to instruction in the particulars of doctrine, 
this is given when truth immediately proceeding from the 
Divine of the Lord is conjoined with truth which proceeds 
mediately, for then perception is given. This conjunction is 
given especially with the angels who are in the inmost or third 
heaven, and are called celestial. These have an exquisite 
perception of truth of each kind, and thence of the presence 



244 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

of the Lord, because. they are pre-eminently in good, for they 
have the good of innocence. Therefore they are nearest to 
the Lord, and in shining and as it were flamy light, for they 
see the Lord as a sun, the rays of whose light are such from 
nearness." (A. C. 7058.) 

The light of the Spirit of Truth, guiding into all truth, is a 
gift that the Lord stands at every one's door desiring to give ; 
and it is given freely to every one in the measure in which, 
by closing the outer door against natural evil impulses, he 
suffers his Lord to open the inner door and to enter. That 
to Swedenborg was given such an extraordinary measure of 
resistance to what was from self and the devil, of openness to 
the Lord Jesus Christ, of love and desire to serve Him, and 
of consequent enlightenment, was due, as he himself does 
not fail to tell us, to no merit of his own, — however worthy 
he may seem in our eyes, — but solely to the fact that the 
Lord desired to open thus His Word to men, and to this 
end graciously led and prepared him. 

The preparation and enlightenment were gradual and pro- 
gressive. At times he saw clearly the interior meanings of 
the words he was meditating upon, with a certainty that he 
saw from the light given by the Spirit of Truth. Then he 
would write, "These things are true and given from the 
Lord." At other times he would write, " These things are 
now very obscure to me" (Adv. 7647): "When the time 
comes to publish, it will be seen whether these things are 
to be printed" (943). Sometimes angels would flow into his 
mind so strongly with their affection and understanding of 
the subject he was studying, that he could not change the 
direction they gave his thoughts, or even keep his hand from 
writing what # they inspired (3764, 4605). Nothing however 
that was written in this way, or from the dictation occasion- 
ally given (7167), was permitted to be published, unless, 
while coming mediately through others, it was perceived to 
come also immediately from the Lord (v. hi. 181). Without 



INSTRUCTION FROM THE LORD ALONE. 245 

this seal, obliterandum erat. Destroyed also must have 
been whatever he may by habit have written from himself, 
without the well-known seal of the light of truth from the 
Lord ; for he says that as often as he wished to consult his 
intellect in heavenly things, he seemed to himself to be 
falling backwards, and would have fallen utterly if he had 
not been restored by the Divine mercy of the Lord (1282). 
What can be stronger than this declaration ? — 

" No word which I bring forth and write is my own, as I 
can sacredly attest : wherefore if any one should attribute to 
me one jot of the things written, which are truths, whether 
he be on earth or in heaven, he would do such wrong to 
God Messiah Himself that by no one except God Messiah 
Himself could it be condoned" (1654). 

" Whenever there was any representation, vision, or speech, 
I was held interiorly and inmostly in reflection on the things 
presented, what there was useful and good to be learned 
from them. This reflection was not so awaited by those 
who presented the representations and visions, or who were 
speaking with me ; and sometimes they were indignant when 
they perceived that I was reflecting. So it came to pass that 
I was instructed by no spirit nor angel, but by the Lord 
alone, from whom is all that is true and good. . . . And, 
besides, when they wished to persuade me, I perceived an 
interior or inmost persuasion that the matter was thus and 
so, not as they wished to persuade. This astonished them. 
The perception was manifest, but cannot be easily described 
so as to be understood by men." (S. D. 1647.) 

This last passage from the Spiritual Diary, soon to be de- 
scribed, deserves careful study. It contains the explanation of 
Swedenborg's frequent statements that what he taught was 
from the Lord alone. He never means that words were 
spoken in his ear, or put in his mouth or pen by the Lord. 
He means always, as here, that in whatever was presented to 
his eye or ear or thought, by man or spirit or angel, by his 
own intellect, by the words of Holy Writ, the Lord Himself, — 



246 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

by His own immediate influx into the reason which He gives 
and preserves with man, — illumined with convincing light 
the things that were from Him. In further illustration he 
says, — 

" Every man who is in the spiritual affection of truth, that 
is, who loves the truth itself because it is truth, is enlightened 
by the Lord when he reads the Word ; but not the man 
who reads it from natural affection alone, which is called the 
desire of knowing. The latter does not see anything else 
than what accords with his love, or with the principles which 
he has either gathered himself or has imbibed from others 
by hearing or reading. It shall, therefore, be told in a 
few words whence and to what man enlightenment comes 
through the Word. That man has enlightenment who shuns 
evils because they are sins, and because they are against 
the Lord and against His Divine laws. With him, and not 
with another, the spiritual mind is opened ; and so far as this 
is opened, so far the light of heaven enters, and from the 
light of heaven is all enlightenment in the Word. For, 
such a man has a will of what is good, and this will, when 
it is determined to that use, becomes in the understanding 
first the affection of truth, then the perception of truth, 
and soon by means of rational light the thought of truth, — 
thus decision and conclusion, which passes thence at once 
into the memory and into the life and thus remains. This 
is the way of all enlightenment in the Word, and also the 
way of reformation and regeneration of man. But it is 
necessary that there should first be in his memory knowl- 
edges of spiritual as well as natural things, for these are stores 
{j>enuarid\ into which t*be Lord operates by means of the 
light of heaven ; and the more full these are, and free from 
confirmed falsities, the more enlightened is the perception 
given, and the more certain the conclusion ; for into a void 
and empty man the Divine operation does not fall." (S. D. 
part vii. 2, 12.) 

"It is believed that man might better be enlightened 



NO IMMEDIATE REVELATION. 



247 



and become wise if he should have immediate revelation by 
speech with spirits and angels ; but the contrary is true. En- 
lightenment by means of the Word takes place by an interior 
way, but enlightenment by means of immediate revelation 
takes place by an exterior way. The interior way is through 
the will into the understanding ; the exterior way is through 
the hearing into the understanding. Man is enlightened by 
the Lord by means of the Word, so far as the will is in good ; 
but man may be instructed and as it were enlightened, al- 
though the will is in evil. And what enters the understanding 
with a man whose will is in evil is not within but without 
him, is only in the memory and not in the life ; and what is 
without a man and not in his life, this gradually disappears, 
if not before, yet after death ; for the will which is in evil 
either casts it out, or suffocates it, or falsifies and profanes it ; 
for the will makes the life of man, and continually acts into 
the understanding, and that which is from the memory in the 
understanding, it regards as extraneous : the understanding, 
on the other hand, does not act into the will, but only teaches 
how the will should act. Wherefore, though man should have 
learned from heaven all things which even the angels know, 
or though he should have learned all things which are in the 
Word, and in all the teachings of the Church, what the 
Fathers have written and the Councils have decreed, and yet 
his will be in evil, he would after death be regarded as one 
who knows nothing ; for since he does not will what he 
knows, and since evil hates truth, the man himself then ejects 
such things, and in place of them adopts falses agreeing with 
the evil of his will. Moreover, there is not given to any 
spirit nor to any angel permission to instruct any man on 
this earth in Divine truths, but the Lord Himself teaches 
every one by means of the Word ; and He teaches him just 
so far as man receives good from Him in the will, and this 
good is received just so far as he shuns evils as sins. Every 
man also is in the society of spirits, as to his affections and 
thoughts thence, in which he is as one with them. Wherefore 



248 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

spirits speaking with man, speak from his affections and ac- 
cording to them. Man cannot speak with others unless first 
the societies in which he habitually is, are removed, which 
does not take place except by the reformation of his will. 
. . . From these things it is evident that the mediate revela- 
tion which takes place through the Word is much better than 
the immediate revelation which takes place through spirits." 
(S. D. vii. 2, 13.) 

"Representations" were referred to in a previous quotation. 
Swedenborg has much to say of them, as forming an important 
means of instruction in the other life. He speaks of them as 
being produced by spirits and angels in such number and 
variety and Jiving power that we could have no conception of 
what he means, were it not for our dreams. In these we 
often have such representations induced by spirits. Rarely, 
they may have real and true significance, could we but per- 
ceive it ; and then what can be learned by means of them is 
more than words can tell. Let us quote for an example what 
Swedenborg says of a representation he saw given by angels 
in teaching children about the Lord's life on earth : — 

" Children together with those in innocence were softly 
representing the Messiah put into the sepulchre, yet by no 
means presenting the Messiah directly, but another ; so that 
it might be known as from afar that the Messiah was signified, 
as also that after the resurrection He descended to the bound 
in the pit, and loosed those who were there captive and took 
them up into heaven with Himself, and that He was joined to 
His own Divine Essence. . . . When they were representing 
the descent to those beneath, they represented most beauti- 
fully very soft little cords, with which they wished to raise up 
God Messiah from thence, and by which they wished also to 
represent the longings of love, given them by God Messiah, 
to do this." (S. D. 233-35.) 

Of the various ways in which Swedenborg perceived the 
things of the other world, we find frequent mention : — 

" There are four kinds of sight which have been shown me : 



VARIOUS KINDS OF VISIONS. 249 

the first is the sight of sleep, as clear as that of day, so that 
in the sleep I should have said that if this was sleep, wakeful- 
ness too must be sleep. The second kind is vision with the 
eyes closed, which is as clear as with the eyes open, and like 
objects, even more beautiful and delightful, are presented to 
be seen. Similar sight may occur with the eyes open, and 
two or three times has occurred to me. The third kind is 
in the condition of eyes open, when those things which are 
in heaven are represented, spirits and other things. This 
^is representative vision, and has become very familiar to me, 
but is more obscure. It differs entirely from the common 
imagination of men. A fourth kind is while man is separated 
from the body and is in the spirit, and then he can in no way 
know otherwise than that he is awake ; for he enjoys all the 
senses, such as touch, hearing, and sight, and I doubt not 
about the rest. The sight surpasses that of wakefulness, be- 
cause it is exquisite. ... As to this fourth kind, it has 
been granted me four or five times, and indeed with much 
pleasantness." (S. D. 651-53.) 

This was written about three years after the commence- 
ment of his visions, and is in accordance with what we have 
already seen, that the full opening of his spiritual senses, with 
abstraction from the body, was effected very gradually. It 
would appear that, in these earlier years, what he saw of the 
other world came to him almost exclusively either in sleep, or 
by representations when awake and his eyes open, the latter 
vision being more obscure. Not more than four or five times 
in the three years had he been in full communication with 
the other world. 

The Adversaria came to a close in February, 1747, the 
notes of explication having been continued through Jere- 
miah, but with less fulness in the Prophets than in the Books 
of Moses. Little was written later than the previous Novem- 
ber, for our author was now at work on an index of Biblical 
subjects, for his own use, and was also writing copious mar- 
ginal notes in his Bible. About the time of the close of the 



250 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

Adversaria, in 1747, he begins what is known as his Spirit- 
ual Diary, in which he now records at greater length such 
spiritual experiences as he had previously made note of in 
the Adversaria. The "Diary" begins with the end of the 
Biblical Index, the first half year being lost and known only 
by the author's index, and is continued more than ten years. 
As published in the original Latin by Dr. Tafel, it makes 
nine octavo volumes, with rather more pages than the Adver- 
saria. These pages are full of interesting experience and 
information, from which we have already begun to draw. 
Though Swedenborg did not publish the "Diary" by itself, 
he drew from it many illustrative passages for the works that 
he felt himself commissioned to publish, in the unfolding of 
the Scriptures and their doctrine. Though not designed for 
publication, it none the less contains many items that help us 
to understand the more important works, and enable us to 
trace more intelligently Swedenborg's progress and prepa- 
ration for his mission, on which we do not yet find him fair- 
ly entered. He was feeling his way. His eyes had been 
touched, but he did not yet see all clearly. We might almost 
say, he saw men — spirits — as trees walking. He was going 
through temptations, for more interior purification. He was 
learning to live only from the Lord in love for His Holy will. 
He felt the angels of the Lord about him, and was instructed 
by them by representations ; but he was not as yet one with 
them, — to see as they saw, and to share their perfect pro- 
tection in their Lord's love. . What he had written was in the 
line of preparation ; but it had not yet the clearness that was 
needed, and that could come only from a higher point of 
view, — that of the angels who see the Lord's ends from love 
for them, and from the ends comprehend the means. This 
was to come. 

A marginal note in Swedenborg's Biblical Index, under 
date of Aug. 7, 1747, indicates that at that time he was first 
introduced, by change of state, into the " celestial kingdom." 
To understand this, we want the help of what he tells us later, 



VARIOUS CLASSES OF ANGELS. 25 I 

that the whole heavens are twofold, celestial and spiritual, or 
delighting on the one hand in love to the Lord, and on the 
other in wisdom from Him and in love to the neighbor ; and 
further, that these two regions of the mind are distinct, and 
that the one may be opened and determine the state of the 
man, without the other. Swedenborg as a philosopher could 
not but be associated first with angels of the spiritual king- 
dom ; but in order to understand the state of those who are 
in the celestial kingdom and the sense of the Scriptures from 
which they draw their life, it was necessary for him to be in- 
troduced also into this,— that is, to have this region of his 
mind opened in some degree. 

About this time he speaks in his "Diary" of three classes 
of angels : — 

"Angels of the first class, to be called celestial, who are 
ruled immediately by God Messiah through love, and who 
have an elevated understanding of good and thence of truth ; 
angels of the second class, to be called truly spiritual, who 
are ruled by God Messiah mediately through the celestial 
angels ; angels of the third class, to be called affections or 
goodnesses, who are ruled through both the celestial and the 
spiritual angels, thus mediately by God Messiah, for they 
have not such intelligence and wisdom that they can be im- 
mediately acted on by Him. The rest are called spirits, and 
are of endless variety. Angels ascend according to their 
perfection, and hence are to be called superior and inferior ; 
or they advance inwardly, and hence are to be called interior, 
more interior, and inmost. These are signified by Jacob, 
Isaac, and Abraham ; also by Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, in 
Isaiah." (S. D. 156.) 

Up to this time, then, we understand that the angels from 
whom Swedenborg had received assistance were of the spirit- 
ual class, who are ruled, not immediately, but mediately by 
the Lord, and who, as he says elsewhere, are affected not so 
much by His love and His ends as by His wisdom and His 
means. In June or July previous he began a new explication 



252 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

of Genesis, in his marginal notes, premising that for several 
years he had been instructed through spirits and angels 
about the other world and the doctrine of true faith, and 
"respecting the interior and more interior [or spiritual] 
senses of both the Old and the New Testaments, which con- 
stitute their spirit and life." Thus he did not allude to the 
inmost or celestial sense ; and in the explication of creation 
as regeneration, he fell far short of what he was soon to know 
and teach. 

The superior intelligence into which he was now admitted, 
by association with celestial angels, is reason enough why he 
should again lay aside the explications he had been develop- 
ing, from a lower point of view, and for the fourth and last 
time begin at Genesis, under the light now given so much 
more fully and nearly from the Lord Himself. The need of 
this new beginning is very apparent from this fact alone, that 
he now sees the work of creation to describe in particular the 
process of regeneration with the most ancient people, who 
had no inherited evil to be regenerated from, but only the 
infirmities inherent in human nature. This people regen- 
erated became of the celestial type on earth, and celestial 
angels in heaven. It was impossible for any one to under- 
stand them, or the regeneration and other events signified 
by what is described in these early chapters, without having 
his mind opened inwardly and upwardly till he could come 
into association with them, and feel and think with them. 
Notably is this true again with what is described under the 
representation of Abraham, the celestial state of man, and 
the celestial human or childhood's state of the Lord's own 
humanity. 

We do not, however, understand that when Swedenborg 
was introduced into the celestial kingdom he came into the 
inmost, most ancient heaven. Besides the general division, 
as of right and left, into two kingdoms, he tells us that the 
inmost heaven is celestial, the middle heaven spiritual, and 
the lower or outer heaven both celestial and spiritual-natural. 



THE CELESTIAL HEAVEN. 



253 



It is into association with this celestial-natural heaven that 
we understand Swedenborg to have come, for more or less 
permanence, and to have gained intercourse thereby with 
the inmost or truly celestial heaven only rarely, for special 
purpose. Some months after the date noticed he says, " Dur- 
ing a considerable time, even for some weeks, celestial spirits 
abode with me" (S. D. 1105); and a little later he speaks of 
the influx from the more interior heaven as being in its in- 
ward joy and peace more than he could bear, and he won- 
ders whether the angels of the inmost heaven are holy and 
their influence the Holy Spirit. Answer came from them 
through intermediates that they were not holy, but that the 
Lord alone is Holy; and when he inquired in thought 
whether any born on earth at this day can be admitted into 
that heaven, answer seemed to come that they cannot, but 
only those who lived on this earth in the Most Ancient 
Church, and now some from other earths. 1 (S. D. 11 98, 
1200.) 

This appears to be his first acquaintance with this inmost 
heaven of innocence, but he is permitted to learn more for 
the sake of unfolding what belongs to it in the Word : — 

"The sons of the [Most] Ancient Church spoke with 
angels during their life on earth, and had continual asso- 
ciation with them, because to them in external things in- 
ternal corresponding things were represented." (S. D. 185, 
Aug. 28, 1747.) 

" Very many things occur in the Word of God Messiah, 
both of the Old and of the New Testament, which cannot 
but appear unintelligible, for the reason that the human race 
of this day is entirely changed from the men who lived in 
the Most Ancient Church and those who lived afterwards in 
the Ancient. If those men had lived to the present time, 

1 A year or two later, in the second volume of the Arcana Coelestia, n. 1531, 
he says, — " That I might be confirmed in this, that the Lord appears to the 
celestial angels as a sun, and to the spiritual angels as a moon, by the Divine 
mercy of the Lord my interior vision was so far opened, and I plainly saw the 
moon shining ; . . . but it was not given me to see the sun." 



254 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

these things could be known from their experience and reve- 
lation ; but now they may be better known from the state of 
their spirits or souls in heaven" (Sept. 15, 1747). 

"As before said, the inhabitants [of Jupiter] speak with 
their spirits, just as also did the sons of the Most Ancient 
Church, — which may be evident from the history of the 
creation, with both good and evil ; for in the Most Ancient 
Church there was not so much of speech and memory as 
now, but more of imagination and thought" (Jan. 26, 1748). 

It may at first surprise us that Swedenborg's acquaintance 
in the other world should have extended to the spirits of 
other earths ; but we cease to wonder when we learn of him 
that all souls arrange themselves in the other life according 
to their affinities, and that these are determined by their 
thought and feeling in regard to the Lord. When, therefore, 
Swedenborg came himself into a state which could appreci- 
ate that of the men of the Most Ancient Church, it was not 
difficult for him to come into communication with the spirits 
from Jupiter, whose state, as we see, is of a kindred nature. 
The way was thus opened, but the main purpose was that he 
might learn from themselves that they as well as we depend 
on the One Lord, Jesus Christ : — 

"They say that they worship the only Lord of heaven, 
whom they do not name, but they know that the only Lord 
rules all. Him therefore they seek after death and find, who 
is Jesus Christ. Being asked whether they knew that the 
only Lord is Man, they replied that they all know that He is 
Man, for He has been seen by many as Man, and He in- 
structs them concerning the truth, preserves them, and gives 
to those who believe in Him to have eternal life" (Jan 24, 
1748.) • 

"There were some spirits from that earth when I was read- 
ing the seventeenth chapter of John, who heard it and won- 
dered that the only Lord had become Man and had been 
on the earth as another man ; but yet they said that all the 
things were Divine" (Jan. 26, 1748). 



SPIRITS OF OTHER PLANETS. . 255 

Here we see the use of this communication to the spirits of 
Jupiter, that they were enabled to listen to the Gospel and to 
learn how their only Lord, whom they knew to be Man, had 
come into the world and been born and suffered death on 
the cross in order to save the human race. And to Sweden- 
borgthe use of the communication, as would appear from his 
language, was most important. Two years previously, in his 
first theological writings, his usual term for our Lord was the 
Only-Begotten Son. In a short time, finding everything in 
the Word and in the other world to depend on Him, he 
adopted the expression " God Messiah," and used it constantly 
up to the time of this meeting with the spirits of Jupiter, with 
occasional reference to God the Father. Now, hearing them 
talk of the only Lord, and perceiving that his God Messiah 
was recognized as this only Lord of the universe, whether in 
consequence or as a coincidence, he drops the expression 
and henceforth speaks only of the Lord. 

In this connection the following, of a later date, Sept. 23, 
1748, is of particular interest : — 

" When I was writing about the spirits of Mercury, that 
knowledge was promised them and that an image of the sun 
was shown them, and they said that it was not the Lord be- 
cause they did not see a face ; and when spirits were speak- 
ing about this, but what they were saying I do not know, — 
then appeared the Lord as the sun, the Lord in the midst 
surrounded with as it were a solar band. The spirits of Mer- 
cury, profoundly humbled, then subsided, and acknowledged 
Him in the anxiety of their humiliation. Presently He was 
seen by the spirits of this earth, as in the world, and by those 
who saw Him in the world. One after another they confessed, 
till there were many, that He is the Lord who was in the 
world, and this in the presence of the whole company. After- 
wards He was seen also by the spirits of the inhabitants of 
Jupiter, who also declared aloud that He was the One whom 
they had seen, for on that earth occasionally He presents 
Himself to view." 



256 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

On the 30th of January, 1 748, Swedenborg notes, — 

" When I was in bed, before I fell asleep, I heard a general 
singing of heaven about me, which was of many angels of the 
interior heaven. ... It was said to me that the whole heavens 
thus continually give glory to the Lord and thus glorify Him. 
That such glorification is continual I was able to conclude 
also from this, that whenever I breathed with a certain silent 
cadence, I was following those who were singing in like 
measure, as in great choirs : from this I could know that 
the glorifying is perpetual." 

To this is added that he was in the sphere of this glorifica- 
tion for half a day or more, and that when his thoughts de- 
scended from it into some worldly thought, he seemed to the 
angels to fall away from them, or to be lost in a cloud. What 
became of his former notions in regard to the Trinity we find 
told in The True Christian Religion : — 

"Awaking on a time from sleep, I fell into profound medi- 
tation about God ; and when I raised my eyes, I saw above 
me in heaven a brilliant white light in an oval form. As I 
gazed intently within it, the light receded towards the sides 
and passed into the circumference. And lo ! heaven was then 
opened to me, and I saw magnificent things, and angels 
standing in the form of a circle on the southern side of the 
opening. They were conversing together ; and because I was 
seized with a desire of hearing what they said, it was given 
me to hear first the sound of their speech, which was full 
of heavenly love, and then the speech itself, which was full 
of wisdom from that love. They were conversing about 
the One God, and about conjunction with Him and salvation 
thereby. They spoke things ineffable, which for the most 
part cannot fall into the words of any natural language. But 
as I had sometimes been in company with angels in that 
heaven, and then in similar speech, because in similar state, 
I could now understand them, and from their conversation 
catch some things which may be rationally expressed in the 
words of natural speech. 



ANGELIC IDEA OF GOD. 257 

"They said that the Divine Esse is One, the Same, the It- 
self, and Indivisible. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas, 
saying that the Divine Esse cannot fall into several, to each 
of which is the Divine Esse, and yet the Esse be One, the 
Same, the Itself, and Indivisible ; for should each one think 
from his own Esse from himself, and singly by himself, and 
at the same time also from the others and by the others 
unanimously, there would be several unanimous Gods, and 
not One God. For unanimity, since it is consent of several 
and at the same time of each from himself and by himself, 
does not consist with the unity of God, but with plurality, — 
they did not say, of Gods, because they could not : the light 
of heaven, from which was their thought, and the aura in 
which their speech went forth, resisted. They said, too, that 
when they wished to utter Gods, and each one as a person 
by Himself, the effort of utterance fell immediately into One, 
nay, into the Only God. And they added that the Divine 
Esse is the Divine Esse in itself, not from itself; because 
from itself supposes the Esse in itself from another prior, — • 
thus supposes God to be from a God, which is not possible. 
What is from God is not called God, but is called Divine. 
For what is 'God from God,' and so what is 'God born 
from God from eternity,' what is 'God proceeding from God 
through God born from eternity,' but mere words in which 
is nothing of light from heaven? 

"They said further that the Divine Esse, which in itself is 
God, is the Same; not the same simple, but infinite, — that 
is, the same from eternity to eternity. It is the same every- 
where, the same with every one and in every one, all variation 
and change being in the recipient, caused by his state. That 
the Divine Esse, which is in itself God, is the Itself, they 
illustrated in this way : God is the Itself because He is love 
itself and wisdom itself, or because He is good itself and 
truth itself, and thence life itself. Unless these were the 
Itself in God, they would not be anything in heaven and the 
world, because there would not be anything of them relative 

17 



258 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

to the Itself. Every quality derives its quality from this, that 
there is an Itself from which it is, and to which it refers itself 
that it may be what it is. 

" This Itself which is the Divine Esse is not in place, but 
with those and in those who are in place, according to their 
reception ; since neither of love and wisdom, nor of good and 
truth and life thence, which are the Itself in God, nor of God 
Himself, can place be predicated, nor progression from place 
to place : whence is omnipresence. Wherefore the Lord says 
that He is in the midst of His disciples, that He is in them, 
and they in Him. But because He cannot be received by 
any one such as He is in Himself, He appears such as He is 
in His essence, as the Sun above the angelic heavens, pro- 
ceeding from which as light is Himself as to wisdom, and as 
heat Himself as to love. He Himself is not that Sun ; but 
the Divine love and Divine wisdom going forth immediately 
from Himself, round about Him, appear before the angels as 
the Sun. He Himself in the Sun is Man, is our Lord 
Jesus Christ, both as to the Divine from which He is 
and as to the Divine Human ; since the Itself, which is 
love itself and wisdom itself, was His soul from the Father, 
thus the Divine Life, which is Life in itself. It is otherwise 
with a man, in whom the soul is not Life, but a recipient 
of life. 

"This the Lord teaches, when He says, 'I am the way, 
the truth, and the Life ; ' and again, 'As the Father hath Life 
in Himself, so also He hath given to the Son to have Life 
in Himself' (John v. 26). Life in Himself is God. To 
these things they added that those who are in any spiritual 
light can hence perceive that the Divine Esse, since it is One, 
the Same, the Itself, and thence Indivisible, cannot be given 
in several ; and that if it should be said to be given, there 
would be manifest contradictions in the appellations. 

"While I listened to these things the angels perceived in 
my thought the common ideas of the Christian Church about 
a trinity of persons in unity, and their unity in trinity, in re- 



ANGELIC IDEA OF THE LORD. 



259 



gard to God ; as also about the birth of the Son of God from 
eternity. And then they said, 'What are you thinking? Are 
you not thinking from natural light, with which our spiritual 
light does not accord ? Unless, then, you put away the ideas 
of such thought, we must close heaven to you and go away." 
But I replied, ' Enter, I pray, more deeply into my thought, 
and perhaps you will see an accordance.' And they did so, 
and saw that by three persons I understood three Divine 
proceeding attributes, which are creation, redemption, and 
regeneration, and that these attributes are of the One God ; 
that by the birth of the Son of God from eternity, I under- 
stood His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time ; 
that it is not above, but contrary to what is natural and 
rational to think that a Son was born from God from eternity : 
on the other hand, that the Son born from God by the virgin 
Mary in time is the Only Son of God, and the Only-begotten ; 
and that to believe otherwise is a huge error. And then I 
told them that my natural thought about the trinity and unity 
of persons, and about the birth of the Son of God from 
eternity, I had from the doctrine of faith of the Church, 
which has its name from Athanasius. 

" Then the angels said, ' It is well ; ' and they asked me to 
say from their mouth, that if any one does not go to the Very 
God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven, be- 
cause heaven is heaven from that Only God ; and that God 
is Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah Lord, from eternity Creator, 
in time Redeemer, and to eternity Regenerator ; thus who is 
at the same time Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; and that this 
is the gospel which is to be preached. 

"After this, the heavenly light before seen over the opening 
returned and gradually descended and filled the interiors of 
my mind and illuminated my ideas of the trinity and unity 
of God. And I then saw my preconceived ideas, which had 
been merely natural, separated as chaff from the wheat under 
the winnowing-fan, and carried off as by the wind to the 
north of heaven and dispersed." (T. C. R. 25, 26.) 



260 OPENING OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

There is great satisfaction in learning thus circumstantially 
by what means Swedenborg's early ideas of tri-personality 
were finally dissipated. Never extreme, we have seen them 
little by little losing their hold and giving way to true, rational, 
spiritual ideas. Now at last, what remained, the mere husks 
of thought, are gone to the winds. Unfortunately we cannot 
fix the date of the vision. This account was first printed in 
1766, in The Apocalypse Revealed, but the vision was given, 
no doubt, many years earlier. 

It is natural to suppose that such purification of thought 
as is here described, such assimilation to the thought of the 
angelic society with which communication was opened, might 
introduce Swedenborg into permanent association with its 
members. With our interest in the man, we can hardly help 
wanting to follow on and learn more of the intercourse that 
had this pleasant beginning, in its personal aspects. But 
such wishes are vain, and find no response from Sweden- 
borg. Not one word is said of himself in all his theological 
and spiritual works which is not necessary to the presenta- 
tion of his subject-matter. This exclusion of himself, more- 
over, has no appearance of being labored ; it is the simple 
result of entire pre-occupation with greater themes, with 
Divinely given instruction for generations to come, perforce 
excluding all merely individual interests. 



CHAPTER XL 

ASSESSORSHIP. — THE ARCANA. — THE APOCALYPSE. 

We have followed Swedenborg in his spiritual experience 
to the last of January, 1748. We must recur to an earlier 
date, in order to keep equally informed of his worldly affairs. 
Arriving in London from Amsterdam, May 1 7, 1 744, he was 
still there in April, 1745, going on with The Animal King- 
dom, and publishing The Worship and Love of God, when, 
after sixteen months of such trial and preparation as we have 
seen, he learned that his appointed work was the unfolding 
of the Word of God. It was in London that he began his 
task, remaining there till August, when he returned home and 
resumed his attendance at the College of Mines. To the 
duties of his assessorship he continued to give attention till 
June, 1747, when the College recommended him to King- 
Frederic for promotion to the place of Councillor. But Swe- 
denborg, instead of joining in the request wrote to the King 
that he felt it incumbent on him to finish the work on which 
he was then engaged, and begged that the place might be 
filled by another, and he himself released from office. As a 
further favor, in consideration of his thirty years' service in 
the College, and of the numerous journeys he had taken and 
books he had published at his own expense for the public 
benefit, he requested that he might be allowed to continue to 
draw his half-salary in the future, as he had in the past when 
absent from Sweden, with leave to go abroad to complete his 
undertakings, — at the same time begging that no higher rank 
should be bestowed on him. 



262 ASSESSORSHIP. 

In reply to these requests King Frederic wrote, under date 
of June 12, 1747, — 

" Although we would gladly see him continue at home the 
faithful services he has hitherto rendered to us and to his 
country, still we can so much the less oppose his wish as we 
feel sufficiently assured that the above-named work on which 
he is engaged will in time contribute to the general use and 
benefit, not less than the other valuable works written and pub- 
lished by him have contributed to the use and honor of his 
country, as well as of himself. We therefore decree, and by 
this open letter release Emanuel Swedenborg from the office 
of Assessor in our and the country's College of Mines, which 
he has hitherto filled with renown ; and as a token of the 
satisfaction with which we look upon his long and faithful 
services, we also most graciously permit him to retain for the 
rest of his life the half of his salary as an Assessor." 

The official record of the conclusion of Swedenborg's ser- 
vices in the College is simple and honorable to all : — 

"June 15. Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg handed in to 
the College of Mines the Royal Decree by which he was re- 
leased from his duties here in the Royal College, retaining 
during his life half of his salary as an Assessor. 

"All the members of the Royal College regretted losing so 
worthy a colleague, and they asked the Assessor to kindly 
continue attending the sessions of the College until all those 
cases should be adjudicated that had been commenced dur- 
ing his attendance at the College, to which the Assessor 
kindly assented. 

"July 17. Assessor Swedenborg, who intends as soon as 
possible to commence his new journeys abroad, came up for 
the purpose of taking leave of the Royal College. He thanked 
all those at the Royal College for the favor and kindness he 
had received from them during his connection with the Col- 
lege, and commended himself to their further kindly remem- 
brances. 

"The Royal College thanked the Assessor for the minute 



MEANS OF LIVING. 263 

care and fidelity with which he had attended to the duties of 
his office as an Assessor up to the present time ; they wished 
him a prosperous journey and a happy return ; after which 
he left." 

The half salary, six hundred dalers in silver, or one hun- 
dred and twelve dollars, thus kindly continued to Swedenborg 
by way of pension for past services and assistance in the work 
now in hand, is of interest to us as having supplied an essen- 
tial part of the means by which he was enabled to prosecute 
his labors at ease and to publish his explications of Scripture. 
Though he lived modestly and simply in his own quiet home 
at Stockholm, or at his lodgings in London, for which he paid 
about six shillings a week, his private income would have 
proved insufficient for what he had to do. 1 It is a pleasant 
fact that his new labors, undertaken in the Divine service, 
were sustained by the public funds of his country. How 
essential it was in this service that he should be relieved from 
worldly care, we may judge, not only from what we have 
already quoted from the Eco?iomy of the Animal Kingdom? 
but more definitely from these passages in his " Diary" : — 

"I have learned by experience, that when I was being 
led hither and thither in the heavens, did I slip into thoughts 
of worldly affairs, then what I perceived in the heavenly 
abode at once disappeared ; and so I learned that those 
who let down their thoughts into the world, slip down out 
of heaven." (S. D. 304.) 

" When I have been intensely engaged in worldly thoughts, 
as- when I was anxious about the needful money, and to-day 
while I wrote a letter, my mind being detained in these things 
for some little time, I fell then into a corporeal state, as it 

1 From a statement preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, it appears 
that Swedenborg had loaned at interest in 1765 the sum of sixty thousand dalers 
in copper, — less than four thousand dollars in American currency, yielding 
about two hundred and thirty dollars income. But the state of exchange 
was such that he could not draw in London more than half or two-thirds 
this amount. 

2 See pp. 150-160. 



264 THE ARCANA. 

were, so that spirits could not speak with me, and were seem- 
ingly absent." (S. D. 1166.) 

"Whenever I thought about my little garden, about the 
one who has the care of it, about expecting to be called 
home, about money, about the disposition of my acquaint- 
ances, or those who were in the house, about what was to be 
written, how it would be received by men, whether it would 
be understood, about new garments to be bought, and many 
such things, — when I was kept in such reflection long, spirits 
brought in unsuitable, troublesome, wrong ideas, increasing 
my anxieties ; but it was observed^ that when I was kept out 
of such thoughts for months and years, I had no care and 
they brought no trouble." (S. D. 3624.) 

From several minor circumstances the Rev. R. L. Tafel 
concludes that Swedenborg now went to Holland and re- 
mained there for more than a year, busily engaged in com- 
pleting the "Biblical Index," in noting his spiritual experi- 
ences, of which during this time we have nearly a thousand 
printed pages, and in writing the first volume of the Arcana 
Coelestia. 

The Arcana Ccelestia, to which we have already several 
times alluded, was published in eight large quarto volumes, 
which later octavo editions have increased, with the index, 
to thirteen. The first volume was printed for the author in 
London in 1 748 and 1 749, bearing the imprint of the latter 
year, and the last volume in 1756. John Lewis, the publisher, 
in advertising the second volume, in 1750, says, — 

"Though the author of the Arcana Ccelestia is undoubtedly 
a very learned and great man, and his works highly esteemed 
by the literati, yet he is no less distinguished for his modesty 
than his great talents, so that he will not suffer his name to 
be made public. But though I am positively forbid to dis- 
cover that, yet I hope he will excuse me if I venture to men- 
tion his benign and generous qualities. How he bestowed 
his time and labors in former years I am not certainly in- 
formed, though I have heard by those who have been long 



PUBLICATION. 265 

acquainted with him that they were employed in the same 
manner as I am going to relate ; but what I have been an 
eye-witness to, I can declare with certain truth ; and there- 
fore I do aver that this gentleman, with indefatigable pains 
and labor, spent one whole year in studying and writing the 
first volume of the Arcana Ccelestia, was at the expense of 
two hundred pounds to print it, and also advanced two hun- 
dred pounds more for the printing of this second volume ; 
and when he had done this, he gave express orders that all 
the money that should arise in the sale of this large work 
should be given towards the charge of the propagation of 
the Gospel. He is so far from desiring to make a gain of 
his labors, that he will not receive one farthing back of the 
four hundred pounds he has expended ; and for that reason 
his works will come exceedingly cheap to the public." 

The "Arcana" was the first work that Svvedenborg had 
felt authorized to prepare for the press and issue to the pub- 
lic in pursuance of his mission. To this mission his life and 
all that he had were now wholly devoted, with no desire for 
return to himself of either profit or renown. Little in fact of 
either was likely to accrue to him in his own generation. The 
second volume was issued in six parts, both in Latin and in 
English, the translation being made by Mr. John Merchant. 
And though they were, as John Lewis says, unaccountably 
cheap (eight-pence each), we find Svvedenborg noting in his 
"Diary" (n. 4422), what he learned from letters, that not 
more than four copies had been sold within two months. The 
angels with him wondered at this; but the wonder ceased 
when, on being remitted into the state of thought in which 
they had been in the world, they found themselves rejecting 
these same writings. Thus he learned how little prepared 
the world was for what he had to teach. But he was not dis- 
couraged, for he felt that the work was not his own. Even 
before the first volume was published, it was given him to 
perceive that there would be five different ways in which his 
writings would be received : First, there would be those who 



266 THE ARCANA. 

would wholly reject them, because of being in a different per- 
suasion. Second, those who would receive them as matters 
of learning, and be delighted with them as matters of curiosity. 
Third, those who would receive them intellectually and readily 
enough, but would still remain in the same life as before. 
Fourth, those who would receive with persuasion and let the 
doctrines penetrate and affect their lives in certain states and 
accomplish some use. Fifth, those who would receive with 
joy, and become established in them. (S. D. 2955.) How 
small this fifth class remains even to this day is no matter of 
surprise to those who realize what a vast change of life is 
necessary before we find our heart's delight in being brought 
into the presence of our Lord, in His Word. 

The Arcana Cczlestia being the first book that Swedenborg 
published after his internal sight was opened and in obedience 
to the Divine command, its opening sentences have on that 
account a peculiar interest : — 

" I. That the Word of the Old Testament contains arcana 
of heaven, and that all and each of the things therein regard 
the Lord, His heaven, the Church, faith, and the things which 
are of faith, no mortal apprehends from the letter ; for, from 
the letter or the sense of the letter no one sees anything else 
than that they regard in general the external things of the 
Jewish Church ; when yet there are everywhere internal things 
which are nowhere manifest in the external, except a very few 
which the Lord revealed and explained to the Apostles ; as, 
that sacrifices signify the Lord, that the land of Canaan and 
Jerusalem signify heaven, whence Canaan and Jerusalem are 
called heavenly and Paradise. 

" II. But that all things and each, yea the most particular, 
even to the least jot, signify and involve spiritual and heavenly 
things, the Christian world is hitherto profoundly ignorant, 
and so it has little regard for the Old Testament. Yet the 
truth might be known merely from this, that the Word, be- 
cause it is the Lord's and from the Lord, could in no wise 
be given without containing interiorly such things as are of 



THE NATURE OF THE WORD. 267 

heaven, of the Church, and of faith ; not otherwise could it 
be called the Word of the Lord, nor could it be said that 
there is any life in it; for whence is its life, unless from 
those things which are of life ? that is, unless from this, that 
all and each of the things in it have reference to the Lord, 
who is the very Life itself? Wherefore whatsoever does not 
interiorly regard Him, does not live ; nay, whatever expres- 
sion in the Word does not involve Him, or in its own manner 
relate to Him, is not Divine. 

" III. Without such life the Word, as to the letter, is dead ; 
for it is with the Word as with man, who, as is known in the 
Christian world, is external and internal ; the external man 
separate from the internal is the body, and thus dead ; but 
the internal is what lives and gives to the external to live. 
The internal man is the soul. Thus the Word, as to the 
letter alone, is as the body without the soul. 

" IV. From the sense of the letter alone, when the mind is 
fixed in it, it can in no wise be seen that it contains such 
things ; as in this first part of Genesis, from the sense of 
the letter nothing else is known than that it treats of the 
creation of the world and of the Garden of Eden, which 
is called Paradise ; also of Adam as the first created man : 
who imagines anything more ? But that these things contain 
arcana which have never hitherto been revealed, will be suffi- 
ciently evident from what follows ; and indeed that the first 
chapter of Genesis, in the internal sense, treats of the New 
Creation of man, or of his Regeneration, in general, and 
of the Most Ancient Church in particular ; and indeed in 
such manner that there is not the least particle of an ex- 
pression that does not represent, signify, and involve these 
things. 

" V. But that such is the case no mortal can ever know, 
unless from the Lord. For this reason it is permitted to 
state at the outset that of the Lord's mercy it has been 
granted me now for several years to be constantly and con- 
tinuously in the company of spirits and angels, to hear them 



268 THE ARCANA. 

speaking, and in turn to speak with them ; hence it has been 
given me to hear and see astonishing things which are in the 
other life, which have never come to the knowledge of any 
man, nor into his idea. I have there been instructed con- 
cerning different kinds of spirits ; concerning the state of 
souls after death; concerning hell, or the lamentable state 
of the unfaithful; concerning heaven, or the most happy 
state of the faithful, especially concerning the doctrine of 
faith which is acknowledged in the whole heaven ; on which 
subjects, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, many things will 
be said in the following pages." 

Following this introduction, Swedenborg prints the whole 
of the first chapter of Genesis in Latin. Then he gives a 
summary of the contents of the chapter in the internal sense, 
as follows : — 

"The six days, or times, which are so many successive 
states of man's regeneration, are in general as follows : — 

" The first state is that which precedes, both from infancy 
and immediately before regeneration, and is called a void, 
emptiness, and thick darkness. And the first movement, 
which is the mercy of the Lord, is the spirit of God moving 
itself upon the faces of the waters. 

"The second state is when distinction is made between the 
things which are the Lord's and those which are man's own ; 
those which are the Lord's are called in the Word ' remains,' 
and are here especially the knowledges of faith which man 
has acquired from infancy, which are stored up and are not 
manifest before he comes into this state. This state seldom 
exists at the present day without temptation, misfortune, 
or grief, which cause the things of the body and the world, 
or his own, to become quiet and, as it were, to die. Thus 
the things of the external .man are separated from those 
of the internal : in the internal are the remains stored up 
by the Lord for this time and this use. 

" The third state is that of repentance, in which from the 
internal man he speaks piously and devoutly, and brings forth 



THE SIX DAYS. 269 

good things, as the works of charity, but which are neverthe- 
less inanimate because he regards them as from himself. 
These are called the tender grass, then the herb yielding 
seed, and afterwards the tree yielding fruit. 

" The fourth state is when he is affected by love and illu- 
mined by faith ; he before indeed spoke pious things and 
brought forth good things, but from a state of temptation 
and distress, not from faith and charity. These therefore, 
love and faith, are now enkindled in the internal man, and 
are called the two great lights. 

"The fifth state is, that he speaks from faith, and thereby 
confirms himself in truth and good ; the things which he then 
brings forth are animate, and are called the fishes of the sea 
and the birds of the heavens. 

"The sixth state is, when from faith and thence from love 
he speaks true things and does good things ; the things which 
he then brings forth are called the living soul and creature. 
And because he then begins to act from love, also, as well as 
from faith, he becomes a spiritual man, which is called an 
image of God. His spiritual life is delighted and sustained 
by the things that are of the knowledges of faith and of the 
works of charity, which are called his food ; and his natural 
life is delighted and sustained by the things that are of the 
body and the senses; from which there is a combat until 
love reigns and he becomes a celestial man. 

"They who are regenerated do not all arrive at this state, 
but some, and the greatest part at this day, only to the first ; 
some only to the second ; some to the third, the fourth, and 
the fifth ; few to the sixth, and scarcely any to the seventh." 

The seventh state, here but alluded to, is described in the 
next chapter, in the explanation of the seventh day. After 
this summary of the contents of the first chapter, he begins 
with the particular unfolding of the internal sense, verse by 
verse, clause by clause, premising that, — 

" In the following pages by the Lord is meant solely the 
Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ ; and He is called Lord 



27O THE ARCANA. 

without the other names. He is acknowledged and adored 
as Lord in the entire heaven, because He has all power in 
the heavens and in the earth. He commanded also saying, 
' Ye call Me Lord, and ye say rightly, for I am ' (John xiii. 
13). And after the resurrection the disciples called Him 
Lord. 

" Through the whole heaven they know no other Father 
than the Lord, because they are One, as He said : ' I am the 
way, the truth, and the life.' Philip saith, 'Show us the 
Father.' Jesus saith to him, 'Am I so long time with you, 
and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath 
seen Me hath seen the Father : how sayest thou then, show 
us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father 
and the Father in Me ? Believe Me that I am in the Father 
and the Father in Me' (John xiv. 6-1 1)." 

Twenty-six octavo pages are given to the explication of 
this first chapter, and then our author says, — 

" This then is the internal sense of the Word, its very life, 
which does not at all appear from the sense of the letter ; 
but the arcana are so many that volumes would not be suffi- 
cient for unfolding them. Here only a very few are declared, 
and such as may prove that regeneration is here treated of, 
and that this proceeds from the external man to the internal. 
Thus the angels understand the Word. They know nothing 
at all which is of the letter, not even one word, what it prox- 
imately signifies, still less the names of countries, cities, rivers, 
and persons, which occur so frequently in the historical and 
prophetical parts. They have only an idea of the things sig- 
nified by words and names ; as, by Adam in Paradise they 
have a perception of the Most Ancient Church, and not of 
the Church itself, but of the faith towards the Lord of that 
Church ; by Noah, the Church remaining with posterity and 
continued to the time of Abram ; by Abraham, not the man 
who lived, but the saving faith which he represented ; and so 
on. Thus they perceive things spiritual and celestial, alto- 
gether abstracted from words and names." 



THE FORM OF HEAVEN. 27 1 

In this manner the work is continued, in its twelve vol- 
umes, through Genesis and Exodus, with a few illustrative 
pages at the end of chapters, from the author's spiritual ex- 
perience. At the close of the fourth volume he begins a 
series of these illustrative intermediate chapters with these 
words : — 

" It is now allowed to relate and describe wonderful things 
which, so far as I know, have not as yet been known to any 
one, nor even entered into the mind of any one, — namely, 
that the entire heaven is so formed as to correspond to the 
Lord, to His Divine Human ; and that man is so formed as 
to correspond to heaven in regard to all and each of the 
things in him, and by heaven to the Lord. This is a great 
arcanum which is now to be revealed, and of which we shall 
treat here and at the close of the subsequent chapters." 

This subject is continued through three volumes, in the 
course of which the correspondence is given of the functions 
of all the principal parts of the body, with the analogous 
functions in the spiritual man, and some account given of 
the angels or spirits who are the seat of these functions and 
thus occupy the corresponding regions of the Greatest Man, 
that is, of heaven. Only long experience of thought in 
accordance with this sublime truth can bear witness to the 
boon of its revelation ; and the longer and more enlightened 
the experience, the higher becomes the appreciation. 

The intermediate portions of the eighth volume are occu- 
pied with the connection of angels and spirits with men, and 
of the soul with the body, and those of the four succeeding 
volumes with an account of the spirits and inhabitants of 
other planets. In addition to what is thus appended to the 
chapters, through several of the volumes some introductory 
doctrinal matter is prefixed to each chapter. From this 
interpolated material Swedenborg afterwards published sev- 
eral small volumes, with some changes and additions. Much 
of it is contained in the work on Heaven and Hell, and 
much in the treatises on Influx and the Intercourse of the 



272 THE ARCANA. 

Soul and Body, on The Earths in the Universe, on The 
New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, and on The 
White Horse. 

The style of the "Arcana" differs materially from that of 
the earlier Adversaria. It is no longer that of an explorer, 
just discovering, or about to discover, or just hearing things 
entirely new to him. It is now that of a master, full to over- 
flowing with knowledge that had become familiar to him, and 
that lay broadly and clearly under his view, from which he 
had only to choose what would be most intelligible and most 
useful to his readers. He no longer doubts whether what he 
writes is quite correct and is to be printed. It is apparent 
that he is writing and printing under clearly recognized au- 
thority. Yet the careful student finds some minor points, 
though marvellously few, in which the author's later experi- 
ence of twenty years developed additional clearness and 
slight modification. 

An entire change from the method of the Adversaria 
appears in the confirmation of almost every interpretation 
given, by reference to other passages containing similar words 
throughout the Scriptures. For this Swedenborg had made 
extensive preparation in the studies of the Adversaria, and 
especially in his "Biblical Index," evidently provided for this 
very purpose. The same course was afterwards pursued in 
the explanation of the Apocalypse, at much greater length 
and with fuller explanation of the confirmatory passages 
cited ; from which it comes to pass, that although the books 
of Genesis, Exodus, and the Revelation are the only books 
of the Word of which Swedenborg published a special ex- 
position, there are few passages in the entire Scriptures on 
which his works do not throw light, either directly or in- 
directly. 

The Arcana Cozlestia, to many people, is not easy read- 
ing. How can the deep, interior explanation, verse by verse, 
of Genesis and Exodus, with copious citation, be read with 
ease ? It is delightful only to those who find interior delight 



THE GOLDEN AGE. 



273 



in perceiving the whole Word of the Lord to be full of His 
presence, of His infinite love and truth. And such, experi- 
ence shows, are not confined to theologians or to men of 
trained intellect. Quite as many, and quite as earnest, they 
are found among the simple in heart, — unpretending women, 
and innocent youth. To such there is abundant beauty and 
delight in passages like the following, explaining and illus- 
trating the 13th verse of the 31st chapter of Exodus : — 

" ( Speak thou to the sons of Israel, saying,' — signifies the 
information of those who are of the Church by the Word. 
Concerning information by the Word something shall here 
be said : in the most ancient times men were informed con- 
cerning heavenly things, or those which relate to eternal life, 
by immediate intercourse with the angels of heaven ; for 
heaven then acted as one with the men of the Church, inas- 
much as it flowed in through the internal man into their ex- 
ternal, whence they had not only illustration and perception, 
but also discourse with the angels. This time was called the 
golden age, because men were then in the good of love to 
the Lord ; for gold signifies that good. Those things are also 
described by Paradise in the Word. Afterwards information 
about heavenly things and those which relate to eternal life, 
was effected by what are called correspondences and repre- 
sentations, the knowledge of which was derived from the 
most ancient men, who had immediate intercourse with the 
angels of heaven. Into these correspondences and represen- 
tations heaven then flowed in with men, and gave illustra- 
tion, for these are the external forms of heavenly things ; 
and in proportion as men at that time were in the good of 
love and charity, in the same proportion they were illus- 
trated, for all Divine influence out of heaven is into the 
good with man, and by good into truths ; and whereas the 
man of the Church at that time was in spiritual good, which 
good in its essence is truth, therefore those times were called 
the silver age, for silver signifies such good. But when the 
knowledge of correspondences and of representations was 

18 



274 THE ARCANA. 

turned into magic, that Church perished, and a third suc- 
ceeded, in which indeed all worship was effected by nearly 
similar things, but still it was unknown what they signified. 
This Church was instituted with the Judaic and Israelitish 
nation. But whereas information about heavenly things, or 
about those things which relate to eternal life, could not be 
effected with the men of that Church by influx into their in- 
teriors, and thus by illustration, therefore angels from heaven 
spake by a living voice with some of them, and instructed 
them about external things, but little about internal things, 
because these they could not comprehend. They who were 
in natural good received those things holily, whence those 
times were called brazen, for brass signifies such good. 
But when not even natural good remained with the man of 
the Church, the Lord came into the world, and reduced all 
things in the heavens and in the hells into order, — to the end 
that man may receive influx from Him out of heaven and be 
illustrated, and that the hells might not be any hindrance and 
let in thick darkness : then a fourth Church commenced, 
which is called Christian. In this Church information about 
heavenly things, or about the things which relate to eternal 
life, is effected solely by the Word, whereby man has influx 
and illustration ; for the Word was written by mere corres- 
pondences and representations, which signify heavenly things, 
into which heavenly things the angels of heaven come, when 
man reads the Word : hence by the Word is effected the 
conjunction of heaven with the Church, or of the "angels of 
heaven with the men of the Church, but only with those 
there who are in the good of love and charity. But whereas 
the man of this Church has extinguished this good also, 
therefore neither can he be informed by any influx and by 
illustration thence, only about some truths which are not 
joined with good. Hence these times are what are called 
iron, for iron denotes truth in the ultimate of order; but 
when truth is of such a quality, then it is such as is described 
in Daniel : ' Whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, 



RETURN TO STOCKHOLM. 27$ 

they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men ; but they 
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed 
with clay' (chap. ii. v. 43). From this it may be manifest 
in what manner revelations have succeeded from the most 
ancient ages to the present : and at this day revelation is 
only given by the Word ; but genuine revelation with those 
who are in the love of truth for the sake of truth, and not 
with those who are in the love of truth for the sake of honor 
and gain as ends. For, if you are willing to believe it, the 
Lord is the Word itself, since the Word is Divine Truth; 
and Divine Truth is the Lord in heaven, because from the 
Lord. Wherefore they who love Divine Truth for the sake 
of Divine Truth, love the Lord; and with those who love 
the Lord, heaven flows in and illustrates : whereas they 
who love Divine Truth for the sake of honor and gain as 
ends, avert themselves from the Lord to themselves and to 
the world, and with them influx and illustration cannot be 
given. These also, since in the sense of the letter they keep 
the mind fixed in themselves and in their own fame and 
glory, apply that sense to such things as favor their own 
loves." (A. C. 10355.) 

In the spring of 1750 Swedenborg returned again to 
Stockholm, having spent the intervening time partly in Lon- 
don, but mostly in Holland. In Stockholm he remained, 
tending his garden and busily employed on the " Arcana." 
About once a year he sent a new volume to his publisher in 
London, till the last, which was issued in 1756. We hear no 
more of him at the College of Mines, but for some time yet 
we have an occasional paper presented to the Diet. A paper 
of much importance had been presented by him in 1 734, in 
opposition to a party plan of declaring war against Russia, 
which is supposed to have had great weight in maintaining 
peace at that time. A fragment of a memorial addressed 
by him to the Diet in 1755 urges the necessity of limiting 
the distillation of whiskey, "that is, if the consumption of 



2j6 THE DIET. 

whiskey cannot be done away with altogether, which would 
be more desirable for the country's welfare and morality than 
all the income which could be realized from so pernicious 
a drink." In addition, the memorial urges a recall of the 
power granted to the Bank to grant loans on all property in 
the country, which he regarded as one of the causes of the 
bankruptcy into which it was drifting. By these means 
Swedenborg hoped that a check might be put on the drain 
from the country, as shown by the excess of imports over 
exports, and the balance of trade be restored in its favor. 

In 1760, to anticipate a few years for the sake of con- 
tinuity of subject, the financiers of Sweden found themselves 
unable to check the rapid advance of foreign exchange, 
whereby a Hamburg rix-daler had risen from thirty-five to 
seventy-five marks. Swedenborg was a member of a com- 
mittee of the Diet on Finance, on which he is said to have 
had great influence. A memorial is preserved that he pre- 
sented to the Diet on the subject, in which we find views 
acceptable to all sound financiers at the present day. His 
argument is to prove the necessity of curtailing the issue by 
the Bank, of loans on any other property than gold and 
silver; of gradually diminishing the amount of certificates 
of indebtedness that had been issued on other property, by 
requiring the debtors to pay each year a certain percentage 
of their debt in addition to the interest ; of gradual redemp- 
tion by the Bank of all other notes than those payable in 
coin ; of prohibiting for the time all exportation of copper, 
and requiring the Bank to hoard it in anticipation of resump- 
tion ; of abolishing the monopoly of the Iron-office"; and 
finally of farming out the distillation of whiskey, as a means 
of revenue, if the consumption of the pernicious drink can- 
not be done away with altogether. 

At the same time Swedenborg addressed a memorial to 
the King earnestly protesting against the exportation of 
copper, which he calls the foundation and main stay of the 
restoration of specie currency, and recommends instead that 



DEFENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 



277 



for a certain number of years the mining companies should 
be allowed to coin their copper into "coin-plates," or else 
that the Government should coin it for them. 

Not long afterwards Nordencrantz, Councillor of Com- 
merce, who had been the chief supporter of the policy 
which Swedenborg opposed, printed and referred to the 
Diet a book on Swedish affairs, taking a most discouraging 
view of their condition and of the Swedish form of govern- 
ment, and attributing the depression in finances to other 
causes than those advanced by Swedenborg. The latter 
immediately replied, in a memorial to the Diet of a few 
pages, refuting the positions of Nordencrantz, maintaining 
that the government of Sweden was one of the best in the 
world, and showing that, while in every country there were 
abuses to be deplored, true patriotism and statesmanship 
required all to look on the better and more hopeful side of 
affairs, and not on the worse. He says,— 

" Every human being is inclined by nature, and nothing is 
easier and pleasanter for him to do than to find faults in 
others, and to pass an unfavorable judgment upon them, in- 
asmuch as all of us are by nature inclined to see the mote in 
our brother's eye and not to see the beam in our own eyes ; 
moreover we are apt to strain out a gnat and to swallow a 
camel. All proud and evil-disposed men place their pru- 
dence in finding fault with and blaming others; and all 
generous and truly Christian souls place their prudence in 
judging all things according to circumstances, and hence 
in excusing such faults as may have arisen from weakness, 
and in inveighing against such evils as may have been done 
on purpose. The same also happens in a general way in 
that which concerns governments : faults, numberless faults 
may be found in all, so that volumes might be filled with 
them. Should I undertake to make known all the mistakes 
of which I have heard, and which I know from my own ex- 
perience to have happened in England and Holland to the 
detriment of justice and the public good, I believe I might fill 



278 THE DIET. 

a whole book with lamentations : when, nevertheless, those 
governments, together with our own in Sweden, are the very- 
best in Europe, as every inhabitant, notwithstanding all 
the shortcomings which happen there, is safe in his life and 
property, and no one is a slave, but they are all free men. 
The Honorable Houses of the Diet will allow me to go still 
higher : if in this world there should exist a heavenly gov- 
ernment, consisting of men who had an angelic disposition, 
there would nevertheless be in it faults caused by weakness, 
together with other shortcomings ; and if these were ferreted 
out, reported, and exaggerated, this government too might 
be undermined by calumny, and thereby gradually a desire 
might be raised among the well-disposed to change and des* 
troy it. The best government, and that which is most wisely 
arranged, is our own government in Sweden; inasmuch as 
all things are connected here as in a chain, and are joined 
together for the purpose of administering justice from the 
highest leader to the lowest." 

Swedenborg spoke from much experience, having been a 
favorite with several kings, an officer of the government for 
thirty years in the College of Mines, and being in the Diet 
of the party which curtailed the royal power, retaining the 
supreme control in the Houses of the Diet themselves. This 
was in 1762. The next year Swedenborg's views prevailed, 
and his first measure passed, forbidding bank loans on mov- 
able property. The year after, Nordencrantz's party having 
again come into power, and he having made friends with 
Swedenborg, they combined on the proposition that the issue 
of paper-money should be limited to the amount of bullion 
stored in bank. Swedenborg wished to come to this point 
by degrees. Nordencrantz preferred to reach it at once, and 
so the Diet decided. But the measures proved too abrupt to 
be sustained, and in a few years all the ground that had been 
gained was lost. 

Another state matter which gave Swedenborg concern at 
this time was the controversy between the Court and its par- 



POLITICAL VIEWS. 279 

tisans on the one side, and the Diet in behalf of the people 
on the other. The latter party, under the lead of Count 
Hopken and other senators, had sustained the alliance of 
Sweden with France, against the wishes of the Royal family, 
which was allied to that of Prussia. The war that ensued 
was unfortunate, and in the reaction that followed, Hopken 
and two colleagues were obliged to resign. In 1761 Swe- 
denborg memorialized the Diet in strong terms, urging the 
necessity of maintaining intact the government, at once free 
and conservative, which they had hitherto enjoyed, resisting 
the encroachments of the Court, backed by that of Prussia, 
itself under the influence of intriguing papacy, and main- 
taining sacred their alliance with France. In this view he 
strongly advised the restoration of Hopken and his col- 
leagues, as tried and faithful friends of Sweden : advice 
that was afterwards followed. In short, to quote from Swe- 
dish authority, with abridgment, — 

"Up to the time of his extreme old age Swedenborg in- 
terested himself in the administrative, financial, and political 
affairs of his country. As a member of the House of No- 
bles, he was an independent member, supporting whatever 
he saw to be worthy of his own position and to be right and 
generally useful, without allowing himself to be influenced by 
the right or the left side. Like every true friend of liberty, 
he was opposed alike to despotism and to anarchy. His en- 
trance into the House of Nobles was contemporaneous with 
the re-establishment of freedom in Sweden. During his 
childhood and youth he had witnessed the misfortunes into 
which an unlimited monarchy had precipitated his country. 
He himself had seen the misery and distress which a war 
of eighteen years' duration, with dearly-bought victories 
and bloody defeats, with decimated armies and bankrupt 
finances, attended by pestilence and famine, had brought 
upon it. Need we wonder, then, that Swedenborg was in 
favor of a constitution which set bounds to the arbitrary 
power and whims of a hitherto unlimited monarchy ; which 



280 THE DIET. 

prevented the dissolution of the country, and gradually- 
changed discontent into satisfaction, at least among the 
majority of its citizens? Swedenborg enjoyed the good 
fortune envied by many, of having been able during half 
a century to influence by his vote the resolutions passed 
for the welfare of his country, and of not giving up his 
place in the House of Nobles before the year 1772, when 
death closed his eyes to the darkened prospects with which 
a change in the administration threatened Sweden's inde- 
pendence. He thus belonged to the whole of that period 
of freedom which is valued so highly by many, and is made 
light of by others. With that period his political career 
began and ended." 1 

To this Swedish view of his political position let us add 
one from France. M. Matter says, — 

"The principles of speculative politics of Swedenborg are 
as pure as those of his practical politics. There are none 
more advanced. They are modern politics elevated to their 
entire purity." 2 

He then quotes the following passages from The New 
Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine : — 

" Rulers are necessary for the preservation of order in the 
various societies of mankind ; and they ought to be persons 
well skilled in the laws, men of wisdom, having the fear of 
God. There must also be order among the rulers themselves ; 
lest any of them, from caprice or ignorance, should sanction 
evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it. 
This is guarded against by the appointment of superior and 
inferior rulers, among whom there is subordination. ... 
Rulers set over those things which relate to the world, or 
civil affairs, are called magistrates, and their chief, where 
such a form of government is established, is called the king. 
. . . The royalty itself is not in any person, but is annexed 
to the person. The king who believes that the royalty is in 

1 Nya Kyrkan, i Sverige part ii. p. 48. 

2 Swedenborg : sa vie, etc., p. 23. 



THE JUDGMENT. 28 1 

his own person, or the officer who supposes that the dignity 
of his office is in his own person, is not wise. 

"The royalty consists in administering and in judging 
from justice, according to the laws of the realm. The king 
who considers the laws superior to himself is wise ; but he 
who considers himself superior to the laws is not wise. The 
king who regards the laws as above himself places the royalty 
in the law, and submits to its dominion ; he knows that the 
law is justice, and that all justice which is really such is Di- 
vine. But he who regards himself as above the laws places 
the royalty in himself, and either believes himself to be the 
law, or the law, — that is, justice, — to be derived from him- 
self. Hence he arrogates to himself that which is Divine, 
and to which he ought to be in subjection. 

" The law, — that is, justice, — ought to be enacted in the 
realm by persons well skilled in legislation, men of wisdom, 
who fear God ; and both the king and his subjects ought 
then to live according to it. The king who lives according 
to the laws so enacted, and therein sets an example to his 
subjects, is truly a king." (H. D. 312-333.) 

Little did the members of Sweden's Diet know, as they 
listened to Assessor Swedenborg's common-sense advice on 
matters of state and finance, what stupendous changes were 
going on in the world of spirits, within their associate's per- 
sonal knowledge. With the nearer presence there of the 
Lord of heaven; with the clear revelation of Himself, by 
the Spirit of Truth, in His Word, from Genesis to the Apo- 
calypse, from the Beginning to the End ; and with the pub- 
lication even in this world of genuine, heavenly doctrine, 
drawn from this Word alone, concerning Him, His Word, 
and the duties of men, — the purposed and natural effect of 
the new revelation was produced. A judgment was being 
effected, the judgment that was foretold to the disciples as 
to attend this coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of 
heaven, that is, in the clouds of the letter of the Word ; and 



282 THE JUDGMENT. 

that was exhibited in representation to John in the vision of 
the Apocalypse. 

As early as in July, 1746, Swedenborg noted, in his Ad- 
versaria, that "in heaven all the angels of God Messiah are 
ardently awaiting the last day, for they think of nothing else " 

(vi. 4445)- 

In October, 1747, he writes in his Spiritual Diary about 
the good souls as yet held in captivity, but to be liberated in 
the last judgment, and rejoices in being permitted to com- 
municate to them something of the heavenly joy that was 
granted him (n. 218). A few days later he writes, — 

"Last night when awakened, many things were shown me 
which I cannot describe ; there was a sort of revolution of 
spirits, with clear perception that many who were in the low- 
est heaven were being thrust down, and that many who were 
in captivity were ascending" (n. 220). Then he describes 
a severe struggle that took place, the evil-disposed trying 
to take away from the well-disposed the mercy that was 
extended to them, and the power of this mercy as it came 
from heaven and from the Lord, — the struggle being per- 
mitted for the purpose of making those who were to be 
saved feel their utter dependence on the Divine mercy. But 
this was only a representation of what was about to take 
place. 

Again, on the 20th of November, he notes perceiving 
when awake in the night that very many of those bound in 
the pit were being taken up out of the pit, which was be- 
neath the lowest heaven, the ascent lasting a long time, show- 
ing the great numbers. From this vision again he concludes 
that the last time is now at hand (n. 259). 

On the 5th of December he writes, — 

"I have wondered that thousands and perhaps myriads 
were raised up out of the pit or lower parts of the earth, and 
indeed in what way they could all be allotted their places 
in the heavens ; at last I have been taught to-day that the 
most part of them seem to themselves to be conveyed as by 



THE DRAGON. 283 

chariots and to be borne around to various places, and to 
try each one whether here or there is his proper place, that 
is, whether there is an agreement of his soul with those who 
are there ; and otherwise, as generally happens, being borne 
on farther urasj^hey find agreement and thus rest, that is, 
with soul<=_ T entiles, lyree with their own disposition ; nor is 
there ever a c nn Raised up by God Messiah which does not 
find its rest, and thus company, with others conformable to its 
own disposition " (n. 297). 

On the 1 st of September, 1748, he writes, — 
"Very many were now glorifying the Lord on account of 
His coming and their liberation from hell, and there was so 
great joy at their good fortune that some said they could not 
bear it. The glorification was as if general, so that some 
even in hell desired to join in it " (n. 3029). 

At this time it becomes very common for Swedenborg to 
speak of the " dragon," meaning thereby the vast assemblage 
of spirits who claimed the right to heaven, with no repentance 
and no real acknowledgment of the Lord, and who both op- 
pressed the faithful and opposed all true faith in the Lord, 
proceeding from Him, — in effect, we find, waiting to devour 
the man-child, the true doctrine, that was to be born. From 
his later works we learn that the heaven and earth described 
in the Apocalypse as passing away, were in the world of 
spirits, in the midst between the true heaven and hell. The 
immense crowd of professed Christians gathered in that world 
during the many centuries under which the Church had been 
misruled, who had gained no true idea of their Lord on 
earth, and consequently were unable to approach and recog- 
nize Him in His Kingdom, either by their conceit imagined 
themselves already in heaven, or in humility, under subjec- 
tion, awaited His coming in their lower earth, as it was called. 
The latter were beginning to be guided by the new light that 
was penetrating, and to be raised up into the Presence of 
their Lord. The time was coming for the fictitious heavens, 
formed by those who were represented by the dragon and 



284 THE APOCALYPSE. 

by Babylon, to be judged and dispersed according to their 
inward quality. 

It is amazing to find in Swedenborg's "Diary," for the ten 
years from 1747, with what fulness and circumstance he has 
described these various collections of spirit I their quality, 
and what was being done with them. jv'° nc 11 this time, 
the same within which the "Arcana" wa\ r .& published, 
preparations were going on for the judgment, by means of 
the light that was being diffused from the recognition of the 
Lord in His Word. Without special statement of Sweden- 
borg to that effect, it is evident from study of the subject 
that the mass of spirits in the world of spirits, between 
heaven and hell, including those who had formed for them- 
selves and were living in fictitious or imaginary heavens, were 
up to this time as ignorant of the spiritual and celestial sen- 
ses of the Scriptures, and thus of true heavenly doctrine, as 
were the men whom they had left on earth. And, further, 
the unfolding of these senses in the letter of the Word, or 
the revelation of them from heaven into the mind of Swe- 
denborg was but a part, the ultimate part, of this same rev- 
elation or unfolding in the world of spirits, to those who 
were ready to receive it ; and there first the revelation had 
its great effect. 

In 1757, according to Swedenborg, the great work culmi- 
nated, as foretold in the Apocalypse. For a full description 
of it we must refer to The Apocalypse Explained, in six large 
octavo volumes, to The Apocalypse Revealed, in two such 
volumes, or for a brief survey, to The Last Judgment, and 
the "Continuation" of the same. Suffice it to say here, 
that those on whom the judgment was executed were not the 
openly evil, for they had gone to their like in hell ; nor the 
clear-sighted good, for they had found their homes in heaven : 
but they were on the one hand those who were to appear- 
ance good and inwardly evil, and on the other those who, 
good in heart, were not yet freed from the rule of false ap- 
pearances. In the central part of this vast world were the 



THE JUDGMENT. 285 

Reformed Protestants, for with them was the most knowledge 
of the Word of God. Next around them were the Papists ; 
then the Mahometans in vast numbers, and lastly the Gen- 
tiles as a sea. The progress of the judgment was from, first, 
the Papists, represented by Babylon, through the Mahome- 
tans and Gentiles, to last of all the Reformed, by whom the 
sign of the Son of Man was seen in a white cloud. There 
was nothing hasty or despotic in their judgment. The light 
of the Lord of heaven appeared in His Word, by the teach- 
ing of angels who visited them all, and whoever welcomed 
the light was led up by it into heaven, while those whose 
evils were disclosed by it rushed downwards to hide them- 
selves in the abyss. 

That the judgment was exhibited by the Lord before- 
hand in vision to John was not for his immediate use, nor 
again, as Sir Isaac Newton well observed, " to gratify men's 
curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things ; but that, 
after they [the prophecies] were fulfilled, they might be in- 
terpreted by the event, and His own Providence, not the 
interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world." x 
Yet it is not without significance that it was John, the same 
disciple who was to tarry till his Lord should come, to whom 
it was given to be the witness of the things foretold, — John, 
whom the Lord loved and who represented those who are 
in the good of life from love to the Lord. That such are 
they who will await their Lord's coming and be witnesses of 

1 Sir Isaac continues : " For, as the few and obscure prophecies concerning 
Christ's first coming were for setting up the Christian religion, which all na- 
tions have since corrupted, so the many and clear prophecies concerning the 
things to be done at Christ's second coming are not only for predicting, but also 
for effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth, and setting 
up a kingdom wherein dwells righteousness. The event will prove the Apoca- 
lypse ; and this prophecy, thus proved and understood, will open the old proph- 
ets, and all together will make known the true religion, and establish it. For 
he that will understand the old prophets, must begin with this ; but the time is 
not yet come for understanding them perfectly, because the main revolution 
predicted in them is not yet come to pass." — Prophecies of Holy Writ, part ii. 
sect. viii. 



286 THE APOCALYPSE. 

it to their fellow-men, is most plain. That it was by being 
led of the Divine Grace into the good of life from love to 
the Lord, that Swedenborg was prepared to be a witness of 
this coming and to behold the fulfilment of the vision, in or- 
der to make known its interpretation by the event, clearly 
appears. Moreover, the effect of the announcement of the 
Divine Presence was the same upon the new witness that it 
was upon the old. John fell as dead at the feet of the angel 
through whom the Lord spake. And Swedenborg fell dead, 
as to all that was of self, in the same Presence. But before 
John could realize this Presence, after he was spoken to, he 
had to turn himself, for he was not looking the right way. 
This Swedenborg explains to mean that when the churches 
turn themselves from their idea of a Trinity of persons, to 
that of a Trinity in One Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, there 
will be a new perception of Him in His Word. And such 
we find to have been notably the case with Swedenborg him- 
self. The process of turning was going on during the whole 
period of the Adversaria, and when completed, in entire 
humility and clear vision of the Sun of heaven, the unfold- 
ing of the "Arcana" commenced. 

The preparation of The Apocalypse Explained was nearly 
contemporaneous with the fulfilment of the predictions, 
beginning in 1757 and continuing some two years; but it 
was never completed or published by the author, although 
carefully prepared for the printer to the middle of the nine- 
teenth chapter. The general plan of the work is similar to' 
that of the "Arcana," — first, the full text of a chapter, then 
with the first chapters a few sentences introducing the sub- 
ject, followed by a particular explication of each verse or 
phrase, confirmed by numerous citations of other passages 
in the Word and explanations of them. In the fifth volume 
there begin to be full expositions of various doctrinal matters 
at the end of the sections, some of which have since been 
published in separate treatises. The entire work was pub- 
lished in the Latin in 1785-89, under the editorship of a 



THE HOLY WORD. 287 

committee of five English gentlemen, who completed it by 
adding the lacking chapters from The Apocalypse Revealed, 
and the intermediate matter from a treatise left in manuscript 
on the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. 1 _ Of the two 
works, for reasons that we shall presently see, the explication 
of The Apocalypse Revealed is the more specific and practi- 
cally intelligible to us at the present time. But the earlier 
and more copious Apocalypse Explained is full of the heav- 
enly understanding of the Word, such, we have reason to 
suppose, as had the angels of the spiritual heaven, and as 
was the efficient means used by the Lord in the very accom- 
plishment of the predictions ; while in the doctrinal matters 
at the ends of the sections we find this heavenly understand- 
ing of the Word clearly set forth and illustrated for our use. 
For example : — 

"The Word in its literal sense appears before a worldly 
man, whose mind is not elevated above the sensual sphere, 
so simple that scarce anything can be more so ; but still 
Divine truth, such as is in the heavens, and from which 
angels derive their wisdom, lies concealed therein as in its 
sanctuary. For the Word in the letter is like a shrine or 
secret place in the midst of a temple covered with a veil, 
within which lie reposited arcana of celestial wisdom, such as 

1 About the time of publication, while the manuscript of this work was in 
charge of Mr. Peckitt, one of the five editors, a fire broke out at midnight and 
soon reached his house. While the family and the firemen were busy rescuing 
what property they could, the building tumbled in and they narrowly escaped 
with their lives. In the confusion Mr. Peckitt did not think of the precious 
manuscript, which had lain in his desk, till the next morning, when he was in 
despair at recalling the sight of the desk in flames. At the ruins, however, he 
found a friend who had picked up several volumes in the street and carried 
them home for safety. Among them was the manuscript volume of the Apoc- 
alypse Explained. A fireman, finding the desk too heavy to move, had opened 
it and thrown its contents into the street. Carrying the volume in his arms to a 
meeting of his little society who were grieving over his misfortune, Mr. Peckitt 
threw it on the table and burst into tears. "There," said he, "the greatest 
treasure which I had in my house is preserved in safety ; and for the sake of 
that, I willingly submit to my great loss." He had lost a library of several 
thousand rare volumes. 



288 THE APOCALYPSE. 

the ear has not heard ; since in the Word and in every par- 
ticular thereof is contained a spiritual sense, and in this a 
Divine celestial sense, which, viewed in itself is the very 
Divine truth which is in the heavens, and gives wisdom to 
angels and illustration to men. 

" Divine truth which is in the heavens is light proceeding 
from the Lord as a sun, which is Divine love ; and inasmuch 
as Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is the light of 
heaven, it is also Divine wisdom. This is what illumines both 
the minds and the eyes of angels ; and the same, too, is what 
enlightens the minds of men, but not their eyes, and gives 
them to understand truth and also to perceive good, — as is 
the case when man reads the Word from the Lord, and not 
from himself. For he is then in company with the angels, 
and inwardly in a perception like the spiritual perception of 
angels ; and the spiritual perception enjoyed by a man-angel 
flows into his natural perception, which belongs to him in the 
world, and enlightens this also. Hence the man who reads 
the Word from the affection of truth has illustration by or 
through heaven from the Lord." (A. E. 1067.) 

"That the Word is holy and Divine, from its inmost to 
its outermosts, is not manifest to the man who leads him- 
self, but to the man whom the Lord leads ; for the man 
who leads himself sees only the external part of the Word 
and judges of it from its style, whereas the man whom the 
Lord leads judges of the external covering of the Word 
from what is holy contained within. The Word is like a 
garden which may be called a heavenly paradise, in which 
are dainties and delicacies of every kind,— dainties in the 
way of fruits and delicacies in the way of flowers, in the midst 
of which are trees of life, and near them fountains of living 
water ; but round about the garden are forest trees, and near 
them streams or rivers. The man who leads himself judges 
of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference, 
where are the forest trees ; but the man whom the Lord 
leads judges of it from the centre, where are the trees of 



THE WORD IN HEAVEN. 289 

life. The man whom the Lord leads is also really in that 
centre and looks upwards to the Lord ; but the man who 
leads himself really sits down in the circumference and looks 
outward to the world. The Word is also like a fruit in which 
within there is nutritious pulp, in the centre of that seed- 
capsules, containing in their inmost part a prolific principle 
which in good ground germinates. It is also as a most beau- 
tiful infant wrapped in swaddling clothes upon swaddling 
clothes, everywhere except the face, the infant himself being 
in the inmost heaven, the swaddling clothes in the lower 
heavens, and the outer covering in the earth. Since such is 
the nature of the Word, it is holy and Divine from its in- 
most to its outermost" (n. 1072). 

The uncovered face in the last simile is in accordance 
with what Swedenborg often shows, that in certain passages 
of the Word its Divinity and real meaning is as plainly to be 
seen by all who regard it with humble heart, as the spirit of 
a man in his face and eyes. 

" The reason why the Word is such, is because in its origin 
it is the Divine Itself proceeding from the Lord, which is 
called Divine truth,— and this in its descent to men in the 
world has passed through the heavens in order, according to 
their degrees, which are three. And in every heaven it is 
written in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of 
the angels there ; and lastly it is brought down from the Lord 
through the heavens to men, and is there written and promul- 
gated in a manner accommodated to their understanding 
and apprehension. 

"This, therefore, is the sense of the letter, in which Divine 
truth lies reposited in distinct order, such as it is in the three 
heavens. From which it is evident that all the wisdom of 
the angels who are in the three heavens is included in our 
Word from the Lord ; and in the inmost thereof the wis- 
dom of the angels of the third heaven, which is incompre- 
hensible and ineffable to man, because full of arcana and 
treasures of Divine truths. These lie stored up in all and 

19 



29O THE WORD IN HEAVEN. 

each of the things of our Word. And whereas Divine truth 
is the Lord in the heavens, therefore also the Lord Him- 
self is present, and may be said to dwell in all and each 
of the things of His Word, as in His heavens. As He 
Himself said of the ark of the covenant, in which only the 
ten precepts inscribed on two tables, the first fruits of the 
Word, were reposited, — that there He should speak with 
Moses and Aaron, that there He should be present, that 
there He would dwell, and that it was His holy of holies and 
His dwelling-place, as in heaven" (n. 1073). 

"Love truly conjugial is from the Lord alone : the reason 
why it is from the Lord alone is because it descends from the 
love of the Lord towards heaven and the Church, and thence 
from the love of good and truth ; for it is the Lord from 
whom is good, and it is heaven and the Church in which is 
truth : hence it follows that love truly conjugial in its first 
essence is love to the Lord. . . . The genuine conjugial 
principle is given especially in the third heaven, because the 
angels there are in love to the Lord, acknowledge Him alone 
as God, and do His commandments. To do the command- 
ments is with them to love Him. The commandments of the 
Lord are to them the truths in which they receive Him. 
There is conjunction of the Lord with them, and of them 
with the Lord, for they are in the Lord because in good, and 
the Lord is in them because in truth. This is the heavenly 
marriage, from which love truly conjugial descends. 

"Inasmuch as love truly conjugial in its first essence is 
love to the Lord from the Lord, it is also innocence. In- 
nocence consists in man's loving the Lord as his Father, by 
doing His commandments and desiring to be led by Him 
and not by himself, thus as an infant. Inasmuch as inno- 
cence is that love, it is the very esse of all good, and hence 
man has so much of heaven in himself, or is so much in 
heaven, as he is in conjugial love, because he is so much in 
innocence" (n. 995-96). 



CHAPTER XII. 

DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

On laying aside for a time the explanation of the Apoca- 
lypse, Swedenborg prepared for the press several small works, 
in part drawn from what he had already written and in part 
new. Of these the following were printed, translating their 
titles : The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the 
Lord; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the 
Sacred Scripture; The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusa- 
lem ; The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning Faith ; 
Continuation concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual 
World. 

The last named of these treatises was published in 1763. 
The same year was printed the larger work entitled Angelic 
Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. 
As the "Arcana" and the works on the Apocalypse are the 
treasuries of interpretations of the Scriptures, and the trea- 
tise on Heaven and Hell contains the sum of the new reve- 
lations about the other world, so this compact treatise on the 
Divine Love and Wisdom contains the philosophic basis of 
the new understanding to be given in the New Church of the 
Divine essence and existence, and of the Divine creation 
and sustenance of the world. 

In this work Swedenborg seeks to lift the minds of his 
readers out of the bonds of time and space, and to help 
them to something of the understanding which angels have 
of the Divine nature and operation. The very statement of 
the design sufficiently indicates the difficulty attending its 
accomplishment. But while no one, we may venture to say, 



292 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

has ever read the book carefully to the end and felt that he 
has wholly mastered its contents, we may say with no less 
certainty that no one has so read it without having more of 
heavenly wisdom and of Divine philosophy opened to him 
than he had ever dreamed. 

The book, though but a small volume, is divided into five 
Parts. In Part First we are taught that Love is Life, and 
Life is Love ; that God alone is Love itself, because Life it- 
self; and that angels and men are recipients of life from 
Him i that God is very Man, because the source of all that 
makes man, and of all that mirrors man in the universe ; 
that He is One and indivisible, God-man ; that His Divine 
Essence is Love and Wisdom, and that these together are 
not mere breath, but substance and form in themselves, the 
self-existing and sole-subsisting Being ; that all things in the 
universe are created and exist from this Divine Love and 
Divine Wisdom and are recipients thereof; that their uses 
ascend by degrees from the lowest to man and through man 
to their Creator ; and that the Divine fills all space without 
space and is in all time without time, in greatests and leasts 
the same. 

In Part Second we learn that in the spiritual world, as 
in the natural world, there is a Sun, on which all things de- 
pend for heat, light, and activity ; that the spiritual Sun, of 
which the natural sun is the image, is the first proceeding 
sphere of love and wisdom from the Lord as apparent to the 
minds of angels, and so, by the perfect correspondence there 
existing, visible before their eyes, as the effluence of God 
Himself, from which their bodies have warmth and light, 
while their minds are penetrated with His Love and Wisdom, 
the Holy Spirit ; that all angels have this Sun, or the Divine 
Presence before them, howsoever they turn ; and that their 
position in the different heavens and different quarters de- 
pends on the manner in which they look towards and behold 
the Lord in their Sun : that by this Sun the Lord has created 
the natural suns and all things in the universe, and that this 



THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, 293 

is living, while all nature is dead, having its life only and 
continually from Him, through His spiritual Sun. 

In Part Third Swedenborg sets forth with much fulness 
and illustration the doctrine of discrete degrees, which he 
had previously developed to some extent in his philosophical 
works, but now finds indispensable to the proper understand- 
ing of spiritual things. Discrete degrees are distinguished 
from continuous or simultaneous degrees — to use an inferior 
but palpable illustration — as a solid, a liquid, and a gas are 
distinguished in their difference from such degrees of fluid- 
ity as are seen in a liquid of greater or less density. A bet- 
ter illustration of discrete degrees, used by Swedenborg, is 
that of the several atmospheres around the earth : the gross- 
est, which we call air, by which sound affects the ear; the 
more ethereal, called by Swedenborg ether, by whose vibra- 
tions light affects the eye ; and a still rarer, more active, all- 
encompassing and all-permeating element, which he calls 
in his Principia the magnetic, but in the present work does 
not particularly name or describe. The magnetic is in the 
ethereal, even in all matter. The ethereal is in the aerial and 
in some more solid forms of matter. The grosser is the con- 
tinent of the rarer and is created by means of it, yet is not a 
simple condensation of it, nor the same thing in grosser 
form. Such are the discrete degrees between soul and body 
and action with man ; between Divinity, the world of the 
spirit, and the world of the body ; between end, cause, and 
effect ; between love, wisdom, and operation, in God and in 
man; between the three spiritual atmospheres proceeding 
from the spiritual Sun in which are maintained the three 
heavens, one within or above another and invisible to it, as 
the whole world of spirit is invisible to us. Further, this 
distinction of the heavens answers to three degrees or ca- 
pacities in the soul, by the several openings of which man 
becomes an angel of the natural, spiritual, or celestial heaven 
in which reign respectively love of doing good deeds, love 
towards the neighbor, and love to the Lord. That these 



294 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

'three are in our sight as one, is because as yet we cannot 
look higher than the natural degree, and also because in the 
ultimate degree the higher degrees rest and are contained in 
their fulness and power. Hence the Word of God, which 
contains, one within the other, senses adapted to these seve- 
ral degrees of the mind, to the several heavens, and within 
all the Divine Wisdom itself, is in the sense of the letter in 
its fulness and power. Hence, too, the Lord Himself, who 
from eternity was Love and Wisdom, by entering in time 
into the lower, human degree which He had made, became 
there present in this humanity in fulness and power; for 
therein dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 

In Part Fourth we have an attempt to put into natural 
language, not the angelic ideas themselves, — which Sweden- 
borg expressly shows to be so high above our own as to be 
untranslatable into our tongue, — but such a resemblance of 
them as our language is capable of, by correspondence. The 
subject is creation. He shows that the universe reproduces 
man, and that man mirrors and is produced from the in- 
finity of God- man. Then he combats the idea that the 
universe, or anything, can be produced out of nothing, and 
shows that, as the nearest approach to the angelic idea, out 
of God proceeds a sphere of love and wisdom, which is not 
God, but from Him and in accordance with Him, and is the 
spiritual Sun, before described; that out of this Sun. pro- 
ceeds an atmosphere, or successive atmospheres, also before 
mentioned, which are this love and wisdom resolved into the 
use which is their end ; that of these atmospheres are cre- 
ated the bodies of angels and spirits, with all their surround- 
ings, as of the atmospheres proceeding from the natural sun 
are created the earths and all things upon them ; and that at 
the same time these natural atmospheres and all things pro- 
duced from them are created and sustained by means of the 
spiritual atmospheres. From the effort for use in the spirit- 
ual atmospheres, there is a constant effort in the natural 
atmospheres and earths to produce forms of uses, imaging 



THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. 295 

the universal use, man and the Infinite. As, however, the 
Lord suffers the good use of the atmospheres of heaven to 
be perverted to the very opposite in hell, so He suffers the 
influx of these perversions to bring to pass corresponding 
evil uses, noxious animals and plants, on earth ; while the in- 
flux without perversion brings forth only such good uses, 
beneficent animals and plants, as correspond to heavenly 
things. Both kinds are produced by power from Him, but 
only the good by His will. 

Part Fifth treats of the creation of man, with will and 
understanding to receive the Lord's Love and Wisdom. The 
residence of these primarily in the brains and their represen- 
tation in the heart and lungs are described at length, and 
afterwards the development and the mutual relation of the 
two faculties are described and illustrated by the action and 
mutual relation of the two organs : — 

" That there is a correspondence of the will and under- 
standing with the heart and lungs, and thence a correspond- 
ence of all things of the mind with all things of the body, is 
new and hitherto unknown, because it has not been known 
what spiritual is, and what is its difference from natural, and 
therefore what correspondence is, — there being a corres- 
pondence of spiritual with natural things, and thereby con- 
junction of them ; but still both might have been known. 
Who does not know that affection and thought are spiritual, 
and hence that all things of affection and thought are spirit- 
ual ? Who does hot know that action and speech are nat- 
ural, and hence all things of action and speech natural? 
Who does not know that affection and thought, which are 
spiritual, cause a man to act and speak? Who may not 
hence know what the correspondence is of spiritual with 
natural things ? Does not thought cause the tongue to 
speak, and affection with thought cause the body to act? 
They are two distinct things. I can think and not speak, 
and will and not act ; and it is known that the body does 
not think and will, but that thought flows into speech and 



296 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

will into action. Does not affection shine forth in the face, 
and present therein a type of itself? This every one knows. 
Is not affection, considered in itself, spiritual, and the 
changes of face, or the looks, natural? Who might not 
hence have concluded that there is a correspondence of all 
things of the mind with all things of the body? And as all 
things of the mind relate to affection and thought, or, what 
is the same, to the will and understanding, and all things of 
the body to the heart and lungs, — who might not hence 
have concluded that there is a correspondence of the will 
with the heart and of the understanding with the lungs? 
Such things have not been known, although they might have 
been known, because man has become so external that he 
is unwilling to acknowledge anything but what is natural." 
(D.L.&W.374.) 

"The heavens are distinguished into two kingdoms, the 
celestial and the spiritual kingdom. Love to the Lord is 
predominant in the celestial kingdom, and wisdom from that 
love in the spiritual kingdom. The kingdom where love is 
predominant is called the cardiac kingdom of heaven, and 
the kingdom where wisdom is predominant is called the pul- 
monic kingdom of heaven" (n. 381). 

" Here, for the sake of confirmation, I may adduce a rep- 
resentation of the correspondence of the will and under- 
standing with the heart and lungs, which was seen in heaven 
among the angels. They, by a wonderful flowing into gyres, 
such as no words can express, formed the likeness of a heart 
and lungs, with all their interior structures ; in doing which 
they followed the flow of heaven ; for heaven tends to such 
forms by virtue of the inflowing of love and wisdom from the 
Lord. Thus they represented the conjunction of the heart 
and lungs, and at the same time their correspondence with 
the love of the will and the wisdom of the understanding" 
(n. 376). 

In this we have a glimpse of the need to Swedenborg, for 
understanding the soul's kingdom, of his thorough prepara- 



THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 297 

tion in the study of the human body. The soul, as he rightly 
assumed from his philosophical researches, determines the 
structure of the body, even to minutest particulars, in ac- 
cordance with its own essence and manifold needs. It is, 
then, itself a prior and more perfect example of the human 
form. But least forms image greatest. The soul images the 
whole heaven ; for the whole heaven as a one, like each soul 
in particular, is formed to receive in fulness of the Divine ful- 
ness, and is therefore formed into the Divine image and like- 
ness. Nor is this a matter alone or principally of form, but 
primarily of life and use. It would have been impossible, then, 
for Swedenborg to have gained a thorough understanding of 
the life and order of heaven, or even of the individual soul, 
without the preparation provided for him in the thorough 
study of 'the human body. 

Closely and appropriately following this work on the Divine 
Love and Wisdom, in 1764, came another small book called 
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Providence. The 
two works together furnish just the help needed for entering 
rationally into the mysteries of faith. 

Of the Divine Providence we learn that it is the govern- 
ment of the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of the Lord, 
regarding what is infinite and eternal, and temporal things 
only so far as they agree with the eternal, and having for its 
end a heaven from the human race. For heaven is con- 
junction with the Lord, and the more nearly man is con- 
joined to the Lord, the wiser he becomes, the happier he 
becomes, and the more distinctly does he appear to himself 
as his own, at the same time that he the more plainly per- 
ceives that he is the Lord's. According to the laws of the 
Divine Providence, man is to act from freedom according 
to reason, and should as of himself remove the evils in the 
external man, whereat the Lord can remove them in the 
internal, and then again in the external. Man is not to 
be compelled by external means to think and will religious 
things, but should lead and compel himself. Man is led and 



298 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

taught by the Lord from heaven, through the Word, doctrine, 
and preachings from it, and this in all appearance as of him- 
self. Man does not perceive and feel anything of the oper- 
ation of the Divine Providence, but yet should know and 
acknowledge it. The laws of permission are also laws of 
Providence, evils being permitted for the sake of the end of 
salvation. The Divine Providence is equally with the evil as 
with the good, every man being predestinated to heaven and 
not to hell, and having the opportunity provided by which he 
may be saved if he will, but no one being compelled against 
his will. For "the Lord cannot act contrary to the laws of 
the Divine Providence, because to act contrary to them would 
be to act contrary to His Divine Love and contrary to His 
Divine Wisdom, thus contrary to Himself." 

All these points and many others are amply shown by 
argument and illustration. As a specimen of the manner of 
treatment we will give a paragraph or two : — 

" That no one can think from himself, but from the Lord, 
all the angels of heaven confess ; but that no one can think 
from any other than from himself, all the spirits of hell say : 
yet it has been many times shown to the latter that not one 
of them thinks from himself, nor can ; but that the thought 
flows in. It was in vain ; they were unwilling to receive it. 
Experience however will teach, first, that all of thought and 
affection, even with the spirits of hell, flows in from heaven ; 
but that good flowing in is there turned into evil, and truth 
into falsity, — thus all into their opposite. This was shown 
in this way : there was let down from heaven a truth from 
the Word, which was received in hell by those who were 
above, and by them let down into the lower parts, even to 
the lowest ; and on the way it was successively turned into 
falsity, and at length into the falsity altogether opposite to 
the truth. They with whom it was changed thought the fal- 
sity from themselves, and did not know otherwise ; when yet 
it was a truth from heaven thus falsified and perverted on 
the way while flowing down to the lowest hell. . . . 



THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 299 

"When it was given me by the Lord to speak with spirits 
and angels, this mystery was immediately disclosed to me ; 
for it was said to me from heaven that I believed, like others, 
that I thought and willed of myself, when yet nothing was 
from myself; but whatever was good was from the Lord, 
and whatever evil, from hell. That it was so was also shown 
to the life by various thoughts and affections induced upon 
me, and it was gradually given me to perceive and feel it. 
Wherefore afterwards, as soon as any evil glided into the will, 
or any falsity into the understanding, I searched whence it 
was and it was disclosed to me ; and it was also given me to 
speak with those from whom it came, and to confute them, 
and to compel them to recede, and thus to take back their 
evil and falsity and retain it with themselves, and not infuse 
any such thing into my thought any more. This has been 
done a thousand times, and I have remained in this state now 
for many years, and still remain in it. And yet I seem to 
myself to think and will of myself, like others, with no differ- 
ence ; for it is of the Providence of the Lord that it should 
appear so to every one." (D. P. 288, 290.) 

" Every man was created that he might come into heaven : 
this is the end of creation. But that all do not come into 
heaven is because they imbibe the delights of hell opposite 
to the blessedness of heaven ; and they' who are not in the 
blessedness of 'heaven cannot enter heaven, for they do not 
endure it. It is denied to no one who comes into the spirit- 
ual world, to ascend into heaven ; but when he who is in the 
delight of hell comes thither, he palpitates at heart, is troubled 
in breathing, his life begins to fail, he is pained, is tortured, 
and rolls himself about like a serpent brought to the fire. 
This is so because opposite acts against opposite. But still, 
because they were born men, and are thereby in the faculty 
of thinking and willing, and thence in the faculty of speaking 
and acting, they cannot die. Yet, because they cannot live 
with any others than with those who are in like delight of life 
with their own, they are sent back to them ; thus they who 



300 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

are in the delights of evil to their own, and they who are in 
the delights of good to their own. Yea, it is given to every- 
one to be in the delight of his evil, provided he does not 
infest those who are in the delight of good; but because 
evil cannot do otherwise than infest good, — for in evil there 
is hatred against good, — therefore, lest they should bring 
harm, the evil are removed and cast down into their places 
in hell, where their delight is turned into misery. But this 
does not prevent that man should be from creation and 
should be born such that he can come into heaven : for 
every one who dies an infant comes into heaven, is educated 
and instructed there, as a man in the world, and by the affec- 
tion of good and truth is imbued with wisdom, and becomes 
an angel. In like manner might a man who is educated and 
instructed in the world, for the like is in him as in an infant. 
But that this does not take place with many in the world is 
because they love the first degree of their life, which is called 
the natural, and do not wish to recede from it and become 
spiritual. And the natural degree of life, viewed in itself, 
loves nothing but itself and the world, for it coheres to the 
senses of the body, which are also prominent in the world ; 
but the spiritual degree of life, viewed in itself, loves the Lord 
and heaven, and also itself and the world, — yet God and 
heaven as superior, principal, and ruling, and itself and the 
world as inferior, instrumental, and serving." (D. P. 324.) 

From 1764 to 1766 Swedenborg was employed in writing 
and publishing a new explication of the Apocalypse, with the 
title of The Apocalypse Revealed. The Apocalypse Explained 
had been written about the time of the spiritual fulfilment of 
the events foretold. It is not improbable that its immediate 
use was the establishment of the doctrines involved, as a 
means for the execution of the judgment, by its exhaustive 
citation and comparison of parallel passages from the Word. 
This work being accomplished, the explication was suspended, 
as we have seen, in the nineteenth chapter ; and when it was 
resumed, in The Apocalypse Revealed, it was recommenced 



THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED. 30 1 

from the beginning, with less copious citation of proof, and 
with more particular application to the New Church about to 
be established on earth. 

The Apocalypse had been a sealed book. Many attempts 
had been made to trace its predictions in the historical 
events of the Christian Church. Many writers, both Pro- 
testant and Roman Catholic, had concluded that the measure 
of the Church's iniquity was full, and that her day of judg- 
ment was at hand. Many events seemed the beginning of 
the end. But while all were looking for a visible judgment 
on earth, Swedenborg published his account of its already 
taking place in the other world, and of the commencement 
that was being made of its gradual accomplishment among 
men. For it appears that the vision seen by John represented 
both what was to take place, at the end of the Church, in the 
spiritual world, and what is to take place by slow degrees in 
the Church on earth. 

John represents those who are in the good of life, from 
faith in the Lord, who remain through the desolation of the 
Church, and who first become aware of their Lord's coming. 
The Lord's coming in the clouds and appearing in the midst 
of the seven golden candlesticks, represents His manifesta- 
tion as the bearer of all light in the obscurity of the letter of 
His Word. John's falling at His feet as dead is the prostra- 
tion of self and deep humility of heart with which alone the 
Lord is perceived. The seven churches are the members of 
the Christian Church in their various states, more or less salv- 
able. What was seen through the door in heaven, chap, iv., 
was the ordering of all things in preparation for the judgment. 
The recognition of the Lamb as the only one who could open 
the Book was the acknowledgment that the Lord alone in 
His humanity can unfold His Word and judge thereby His 
people. By those who sat on horses of different colors are 
meant the various states of understanding of the Word. The 
souls under the altar are those who have lived a good life in 
the fear of the Lord, and have been oppressed by the rulers 



302 



DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 



of the Church, but have been preserved by the Divine care. 
The rolling away of heaven as a scroll is the dissolution of the 
fictitious heavens which pretended Christians had formed for 
themselves, as soon as their interiors were disclosed by the 
light of the Lord's coming. The hundred and forty and four 
thousand are they of the Church of every kind, whose interiors 
are good and marked with the Lord's name. The woes fol- 
low the exploration of the states of those who rely on faith 
alone. The woman clothed with the sun signifies the 'New 
Church that is to come, and the man-child the doctrine of 
that Church, opposed frantically by the dragon, the doctrine 
of faith alone. The ruling of the nations by the man-child 
with a rod of iron, represents the power of the new doctrine 
by the letter of the Word, from which it is drawn, and by 
rational argument from the light of nature, with which it is 
confirmed ; but this needs concealment and protection for a 
time. The war in heaven is the battle with those who are in 
faith alone, driving them out of their fictitious heavens. The 
Lamb on Mount Zion with the hundred and forty and four 
thousand signifies the Lord in the midst of the new heaven, 
now forming, of those Cliristians who could be saved by their 
acknowledgment of the Divine Humanity. The first effect 
of His sending forth His Gospel anew to the earth is the 
downfall of Babylon, the Roman Catholic religion ; and then 
comes the torment of those who worship the beast, who are 
fixed in faith alone. The eager desire of the heavens that 
the direful state on earth should be ended, is expressed by 
the cry to the Lord that He should thrust in His sharp sickle. 
The reaping and pressing signify exploration. The golden 
vials full of the wrath of God are the holy good and truth of 
heaven flowing in and making the evil of the Church mani- 
fest. The exhibition of Babylon as a harlot reveals the state 
of those, especially of the Romish Church, who are in the lust 
of dominion by means of the Word. The beast is the Word 
itself put to this degraded use. The ten horns that hate the 
woman and destroy her are truths of the Word among Pro- 



MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE. 303 

testants that destroy the power of Rome : lamentation fol- 
lows of all who have sought their gain in her, and glorifica- 
tion in heaven. The coming Church in genuine truth is de- 
scribed as the wife in fine linen ; and again the doctrine of 
this Church is described as the Holy City, descending from 
God out of heaven, into which there shall enter nothing that 
deflleth nor that maketh a lie, but they which are written in 
the Lamb's book of life. 

This is a scanty outline of the explication which fills three 
volumes. At the end of each chapter is a description of what 
the author was permitted to see taking place in the fulfilment 
of the Apocalypse, of which the following from the close 
of the explanation of the eleventh chapter will serve as a 
specimen : — 

" I was once seized suddenly with a disease that seemed 
to threaten my life. I suffered excruciating pain all over 
my head ; a pestilent smoke ascended from that Jerusalem 
[in the world of spirits] which is called Sodom and Egypt ; 
half dead with the severity of my sufferings, I expected every 
moment would be my last. Thus I lay in my bed three days 
and a half; my spirit was reduced to this state, and my body 
in consequence. And then I heard the voices of persons 
about me, saying, 'Lo, he who preached repentance for the 
remission of sins, and the man Christ alone, lies dead in the 
streets of our city.' And they asked some of the clergy 
whether he was worthy of burial ; who answered, ' No, let 
him lie to be looked at.' And they passed to and fro, and 
mocked. All this befell me, of a truth, when I was writing 
the explanation of this chapter of the Apocalypse. Then 
were heard many shocking speeches of scoffers who said, 
' How can repentance be performed without faith ? And how 
can the man Christ be adored as God ? Since we are saved 
of free grace without any merit of our own, what need is there 
of any faith but this, — that God the Father sent the Son to 
take away the curse of the law, to impute his merit to us, 
and so to justify us in His sight, and absolve us from our sins 



304 



DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 



by the declaration of a priest, and then give the Holy Ghost 
to operate all good in us ? Are not these doctrines agreeable 
to Scripture, and consistent with reason also ? ' All this the 
crowd who stood by agreed to and applauded. I heard 
what passed without the power of replying, being almost 
dead ; but after three days and a half my spirit recovered, 
and being in the spirit I left the street and went into the city, 
and said again, ' Do the work of repentance and believe in 
Christ, and your sins will be remitted and ye will be saved ; 
but otherwise ye will perish. Did not the Lord Himself 
preach repentance for the remission of sins, and that men 
should believe in Him ? Did not He enjoin His disciples to 
preach the same ? Is not a full and fatal security of life the 
sure consequence of this dogma of your faith?' But they 
replied, ' What idle talk ! Has not the Son made satisfac- 
tion ? And does not the Father impute it to us, and justify 
us who have believed in it ? Thus are we led by the spirit 
of grace ; how then can sin have place in us, and what power 
has death over us? Do you comprehend this Gospel, thou 
preacher of sin and repentance?' At that instant a voice 
was heard from heaven, saying, * What is the faith of an im- 
penitent man but a dead faith ? The end is come, the end is 
come upon you that are secure, unblamable in your own eyes, 
justified in your own faith, ye devils.' And suddenly a deep 
gulf was opened in the midst of the city, which spread itself 
far and wide : and the houses fell one upon another and were 
swallowed up : and presently water began to bubble up from 
the wide whirlpool, and overflowed the waste. 

" When they were thus overwhelmed and, to appearance, 
drowned, I was desirous to know their condition in the deep j 
and a voice from heaven said to me, ' Thou shalt see and 
hear.' And straightway the waters in which they seemed to 
be drowned, disappeared ; for waters in the spiritual world 
are correspondences, and hence appear to surround those 
who are in falses. Then they appeared to me in a sandy 
place, where there were large heaps of stones, amongst which 



CONJUGIAL LOVE. 305 

they were running, and lamenting that they were cast out of 
their great city ; and they lifted up their voices and cried, 
' Why has all this befallen us ? Are we not by our faith clean, 
pure, just, and holy? . . . Are we not reconciled, propitiated, 
expiated, and thus absolved, washed, and cleansed from sins ? 
And is not the curse of the law taken away by Christ ? Why 
then are we cast down here as the damned? We have been 
told by a presumptuous preacher of sin in our great city, 
" Believe in Christ and repent." But have we not believed 
in Christ while we believed in his merit ? And have we not 
done the work of repentance while we confessed ourselves 
sinners ? Why then has all this befallen us ? ' But immedi- 
ately a voice from one side said to them, ' Do you know any 
one sin that is in you ? Have you ever examined yourselves ? 
Have you in consequence shunned any evil as a sin against 
God ? For he who does not shun sin, remains in it ; and is 
not sin the Devil? Ye are therefore of the class of whom 
the Lord said, Then shall ye begin to say, ' We have eaten 
and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our 
streets ;' but He shall say, ' I tell you I know you not, whence 
ye are ; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.' . . . 
Depart ye, therefore, every one to his own place ; you see 
the openings into those caverns ; enter, and there work shall 
be given each of you to do, and afterwards food according to 
your work ; but should you refuse at present to enter, the 
demands of hunger will speedily compel you.'" (A. R. 531.) 
In the years 1766 and 1767 Swedenborg wrote much on 
the Divine institution of marriage. From what was written 
he selected and published in 1768 The Delights of Wisdom 
Concerning Conjugial 1 Love; followed by The Pleasures of 
Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love. To this work, first of 

1 The love portrayed by Swedenborg under this title is of an interior nature, 
effecting the union of souls. This may be the reason why he chose the poetic 
word used by Ovid, conjtigialis, instead of the more common conjugalis. 
With the feeling that such a distinction ought to be preserved, his translators 
have kept it in " conjugial," which may now be said to have passed into our 
language. 



306 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

his doctrinal or theological works, he attached his name, — 
"By Emanuel Swedenborg, of Sweden." Perhaps he felt 
more personal responsibility for its teachings, and probably 
he saw the need that all these works should be grouped 
together under his name. Accordingly he appends a list of 
the •works hitherto published, and also announces a complete 
statement of " the Doctrine of the New Church predicted by 
the Lord in the Apocalypse" as to be published within two 
years. (Original edition, p. 328.) 

This work on Conjugial Love was the first to gain many 
readers, and was widely circulated. Eminent clergymen, and 
unprejudiced spiritual minds generally, have recognized its 
elevating power and commended its study ; but it is rightly 
appreciated by those only who love to find in every blessing 
that which is spiritual and from the Lord. To such it is of 
highest delight to learn that the love which is the soul of 
marriage descends from the union of the Divine Love with 
the Divine Wisdom, and is as eternal as the human soul ; to 
gain an insight into the lovely mysteries of the union of affec- 
tion and thought, of good and truth ; and to be told of the 
peace and happiness that attend the marriage union, not 
made by man bat given by the Lord, among the angels in 
heaven. 

He who loves to learn of the purity and sanctity of marriage 
may find in this book all that he seeks. And yet to many it 
has been a stumbling-block, for the reason that in the latter 
part discrimination is made as to the degree of wrong in de- 
partures from the order of marriage. Some of these errors 
are regarded as less harmful than others, and not unpardon- 
able under circumstances of apparent necessity, — though it 
is expressly stated that these things are not said to those who 
are able to restrain their lust, nor to those who are blessed 
with marriage. No one can be troubled by the charity here 
shown for the unfortunate, unless with the fear that it may be 
abused, to make inexcusable wrong venial. 

This result would be most unfortunate, but could hardly 



CONJUGIAL LOVE. 307 

have been prevented. The charity, the mercy of the Divine 
Providence in discriminating as to the degree of guilt in our 
various departures from rectitude, in making us suffer less 
for the lighter than we do for the more grievous, is abused 
in the same way. No dealings with sinners can be Christian 
that are not considerate and discriminating. This treatise of 
Swedenborg did not purport to treat, like his other works, 
of theology, doctrine, drawn from the Word by means of light 
given from the Lord, "but chiefly of morals," that is, of the 
manners and duties of men, with illustration from the light of 
heaven. Naturally the immediate application of the second 
part was to the society of Europe at the time it was written ; 
and for this state of society,. even in its concessions to human 
weakness, it held up an advanced though not unapproach- 
able standard. 1 

It would be a total misapprehension and abuse to take any 
advantage of such humane concession, for the lowering of 
the standard in our own more favored, more Puritan country 
and age. The proper use to us of the discussion of the sins 
against the true marriage relation is, on the one hand, to put 
us on our guard against the sinfulness of our human nature ; 
and on the other to inspire us with discriminating charity and 
mercy in our judgment of those less fortunate in their home, 
their time, or their circumstances. Many things have been 
permitted of the Divine Providence on account of the hard- 
ness of our hearts, which yet from the beginning were not so. 
Each new revelation of the Divine order requires a higher 
degree of purity, a nearer approach to the Divine perfection ; 
and to this rule the teachings given through Swedenborg in 
regard to marriage form no exception. Of the heavenly idea 
of conjugial love taught in the book on that subject, the fol- 
lowing passage will give some impression : — 

"There is given love truly conjugial, which at this day 

1 It is not pleasant to know, but is a help in understanding the conditions 
under which the book was written, that even a century later the proportion of 
legitimate children born in Stockholm was but five in seven. 



308 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

is so rare that it is not known what it is, and scarce that it 
exists. ... No others come into this love and can be in 
it but those who come to the Lord and love the truths of the 
Church and do its good works. . . . That no others can 
be in love truly conjugial but they who receive it from the 
Lord, who are those that come directly to Him and live the 
life of the Church from Himself, is because this love, con- 
sidered in its origin and its correspondence, is heavenly, 
spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, above every love which is 
with the angels of heaven and the men of the Church. And 
these its attributes cannot be given but to those who are 
conjoined to the Lord, and from Him consociated with the 
angels of heaven ; for these shun loves outside of marriage, 
which are conjunctions with others than their own proper 
consorts, as the loss of the soul and the lakes of hell ; and in 
proportion as consorts shun such conjunctions, even as to lusts 
of the will and intentions, so far love truly conjugial is purified 
with them, and becomes successively spiritual, first while they 
live on earth, and afterwards in heaven. Neither with men 
nor with angels can any love be pure, consequently neither 
can this love ; but because the intention which is of the will 
is primarily regarded by the Lord, therefore, so far as man is 
in this intention and perseveres in it, so far he is initiated and 
successively advances into its purity and sanctity. . . . That 
they come into this love and can be in it who love the truths 
of the Church and do its good works, is because no others 
are received of the Lord ; for these are in conjunction with 
Himself, and thence can be held in that love from Himself." 
(C. L. 57-72.) 

After publishing this work on Conjugial Love, Swedenborg 
entered on the task of presenting in complete form the Doc- 
trine of the New Church, as already promised. But he says, 
" As this is the work of several years, I have deemed it useful 
to publish meanwhile a sort of outline of it, in order that a 
general idea of that Church and its Doctrine may first be ob- 
tained ; for when the generals precede, all the particulars as 



BRIEF EXPOSITION. 



309 



they exist in the whole breadth can appear in light, since they 
enter into the general, as homogeneous things into their re- 
ceptacles." This is from the preface to A Brief Exposition 
of the Doctrine of the New Church which is meant by the 
New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, "by Emanuel Swedenborg, 
of Sweden," published in Latin in a thin quarto in 1769, 
and at the same time also in English. Of this little book the 
author says, in a letter to Dr. Beyer, — 

" This treatise was sent by me to all the clergy in Holland, 
and will come into the hands of the most eminent in Ger- 
many. I have been informed that they have attentively 
perused it, and that some have already discovered the truth, 
while others do not know which way to turn ; for what is 
written therein is sufficient to convince any one that the 
above-mentioned doctrine [justification by faith alone] is the 
cause of our having at the present day no theology in Chris- 
tendom." On the reverse of the titlepage are the words, in 
Latin : " I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coining 
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned 
for her husband. . . . And He that sat upon the throne 
said, Behold I make all things new. And He said unto 
me, Write ; for these words are true and faithful." (Rev. 
xxi. 2, 5.) 

At the beginning, as in The Apocalypse Revealed, the author 
presents the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church from 
the decrees of the Council of Trent, and those of the Pro- 
testant Churches from the Formula Concordice. He next 
shows briefly that all the Protestant Churches, though differ- 
ing in some matters, agree in the doctrines of the trinity of 
persons, of original sin, of the imputation of the merit of 
Christ, and of justification by faith alone ; that in these they 
have only adopted the doctrines of the Roman Catholic 
Church, with the change — as Luther confessed, for the sake 
of distinction — of separating charity and good works from 
faith, and yet adding good works, as in a passive subject, 
while the Catholics add them as in an active subject ; that 



310 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

the whole theology of the day was founded on the idea of 
three Gods, arising from that of a trinity of persons, and that 
the dogmas are seen to be erroneous as soon as the idea of 
three persons is rejected and the idea of One God, in whom 
is a Divine Trinity, is received in its place ; that then faith 
really saving, which rests in one God, united with good works, 
is acknowledged and received ; and that this faith is in God 
the Saviour Jesus Christ, and in its simple form is as follows : 
i. That there is one God, in whom is a Divine Trinity, 
and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ. 

2. That saving faith is to believe in Him. 

3. That evils are to be shunned because they are of the 
Devil and from the Devil. 

4. That good works are to be done because they are of 
God and from God. 

5. And that these things are to be done by man as by him- 
self, but that it is to be believed that they are done by the 
Lord with him and through him. 

Such in simple form is the pure, rational, Scriptural doc- 
trine, descending from God out of His New Heaven for His 
New Church to be established on earth. To appreciate its 
simplicity, its beauty, its efficacy, its divinity, one needs to 
have been led up to it, as Swedenborg was led, step by step, 
out of the tangle and fog of the old creeds of human origin, 
and then to see it, as he saw it, descending from God out of 
heaven. No wonder that heaven rejoiced when it was pub- 
lished on earth, appearing to Swedenborg rose-colored and 
wreathed with roses, and that Adventus Domini, the Coming 
of the Lord, was written with his own hand on more than 
one copy of the book. 

After the enunciation of the Doctrine, follows an elucida- 
tion of points in which the doctrines of the day are at vari- 
ance with it. Then it is shown that their darkness is the 
darkening of the sun foretold in Matthew ; that those in faith 
alone are described by the goats in Matthew, and by the 
dragon and other signs in the Apocalypse ; that unless a 



THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 3 1 1 

New Church should be established, none could be saved ; 
that the rejection of the old dogmas and the reception of the 
new faith is what is meant by all things being made new ; 
that the New Church to be established by the Lord is the 
New Jerusalem, and the Bride, the Lamb's Wife ; that the 
new faith cannot make one with the old, but there will be 
collision; that at present the Roman Catholics in general 
know nothing about their dogmas, these being hidden under 
their forms of worship, and so far as they approach the Lord 
as their Saviour can come into the faith of the New Church 
more easily than the Reformed. In conclusion, this Brief 
Exposition gives "by way of Appendix" what also forms the 
introduction to the full work contemplated, The True Chris- 
tian Religion, a farther statement of " The Faith of the New 
Heaven and the New Church" in universal and in particular 
form, as follows : — 

THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH. 

"1. The Faith, in a universal and a particular form, is 
prefixed, that it may be as a face before the work which fol- 
lows ; and as a gate, through which entrance is made into a 
temple ; and a summary, in which are contained in their 
measure the particulars which follow. It is said the ' Faith 
of the New Heaven and the New Church,' because heaven 
where angels are and the Church in which men are act as 
one, as the internal and the external with man. Thence it is 
that the man of the Church who is in the good of love from 
the truths of faith, and in the truths of faith from the good of 
love, is as to the interiors of his mind an angel of heaven ; 
wherefore also, after death, he comes into heaven and there 
enjoys happiness according to the state of their conjunction. 
It is to be known that in the New Heaven, which is being 
established at this day by the Lord, there is this Faith as its 
face, gate, and summary. 

" 2. The Faith of the New Heaven and the New 
Church in universal form is this : That the Lord from 



312 



DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 



eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world that He might 
subjugate the hells and glorify His human ; and that without 
this no one of mortals could be saved ; and that they are 
saved who believe in Him. 

"It is said 'in universal form' because this is the universal 
of faith, and the universal of faith is what must be in all and 
each of the particulars. It is a universal of faith that God is 
One in essence and in person, in whom is a Divine Trinity, 
and that the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ is He. It is 
a universal of faith that no one of mortals could be saved, 
unless the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal 
of faith that He came into the world that He might remove 
hell from man, and that He did remove it by combats against 
it and by victories over it : thus He subjugated it and re- 
duced it to order and under obedience to Himself. It is a 
universal of faith that He came into the world that He might 
glorify His Human which He took upon Himself in the 
world, that is, might unite it to the Divine from which [He 
came] ; thus He holds hell in order and under obedience to 
Himself. Since this could not be done except by tempta- 
tions admitted into His Human, even to the last, and the 
last was the passion of the cross, therefore He underwent 
that. These are the universals of faith concerning the Lord. 

"A universal of faith on the part of man is, that he believe 
in the Lord ; for by believing in Him there is effected con- 
junction with Him, by which is salvation. To believe in Him 
is to have confidence that He will save ; and because no one 
can have this confidence, except he who lives well, therefore 
this also is meant by believing in Him. This the Lord also 
says, in John : This is the will of the Father, that every one 
who bclieveth in the Son may have eternal life (vi. 40) ; and 
in another place, He who believeth in the Son hath eternal 
life ; but he who believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the 
wrath of God abideth on him (iii. 36). 

" 3. The Faith of the New Heaven and the New 
Church in particular form is this : That Jehovah God is 



THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 



313 



Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, or that He is Good Itself 
and Truth Itself, and that He Himself descended as to the 
Divine Truth which is the Word and which was God with 
God, and assumed the Human, for the sake of the end that 
He might reduce into order all things which were in heaven 
and all things which were in hell and all things which were 
in the Church : since at that time the power of hell prevailed 
over the power of heaven, and on the earth the power of evil 
over the power of good, and thereby total damnation stood 
before the door and threatened. This impending damnation 
Jehovah God took away by means of His Human, which was 
the Divine Truth, and thus redeemed angels and men. And 
afterwards in His Human He united the Divine Truth to the 
Divine Good, or the Divine Wisdom to the Divine Love, 
and thus returned into His Divine in which He was from 
eternity, together with and in His glorified Human. These 
things are meant by this passage in John, — The Word was 
with God and God was the Word; and the Word became 
flesh (i. 1, 14) ; and in the same, — "/ went forth from the 
Father and came into the world ; again I leave the world 
and go to the Father (xvi. 28); and also by this, — We 
knoiv that the Son of God hath come and given us under- 
standing that we may know Him that is true, and we are 
in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ ; this is the 
true God and eternal life (1 John v. 20). From these things 
it is evident that without the coming of the Lord into the 
world no one could be saved. The like is the case to-day ; 
wherefore, unless the Lord come again into the world in the 
Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved. 

" The particulars of faith on the part of man are : First, 
That God is One, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He 
is the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ. Second, That 
saving faith is to believe in Him. Third, That evil deeds are 
not to be done, because they are of the Devil and from the 
Devil. Fourth, That good works are to be done, because 
they are of God and from God. Fifth, And that these are to 



314 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

be done by man as by himself; but that it is to be believed 
that they are done by the Lord with him and through him. 
The first two are of faith, the last two are of charity ; and the 
fifth is of the conjunction of charity and faith, thus of the 
Lord and man." 

A century ago, when first published, this doctrine would 
have been pronounced heretical, not only in the Roman 
Catholic Church, but in all of the Evangelical Churches of 
Christendom. At the present day there may be found emi- 
nent preachers in every Evangelical Church who will declare 
that this doctrine is their own, and who do not hesitate to 
preach it, according to their understanding of it, from their 
pulpits. We may go farther : there is no eminent advanced 
theologian of the day whose positions are not approximating 
to those of the New Church, as laid down by Swedenborg. 
In other words, the whole progress of religious thought since 
Swedenborg's time has been in the direction of the standards 
raised by him. This is palpably true in regard to the Trinity, 
Free-will, Salvation, and the Life after death. The one great 
subject on which little advance is made, is the interpretation 
of the Sacred Scriptures. As to this, a good degree of pre- 
paration is being made in the recognition of the whole as of 
one plan, with spiritual application of every part to all men. 1 
But the means of interpretation used by Swedenborg, the 
correspondence of all worldly things with spiritual things, 
can hardly be known, and cannot be used to good purpose, 
except through such revelation as was given to him, and 
by him to the world. 

After the "Brief Exposition" a few little tracts were pub- 
lished, partly in reply to letters, on doctrinal points : " On 
the Intercourse of the Soul and Body;" "An Answer to a 
Letter written to me by a Friend" [Rev. Thomas Hartley] ; 
"Answers to Nine Questions proposed by Thomas Hartley 
to Emanuel Swedenborg." The last-named was first printed 
by Mr. Robert Hindmarsh in 1785, though written in the year 
1 Appendix III. 



THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



315 



the others were printed, 1769. The same year was written 
The Canons of the New Church, or the Entire Theology of 
the New Church. This small work was not published by the 
author, but served him as the basis or first draught of the 
more important work that was to follow. Its introduction, 
however, is very suitable for us in this place : — 

" The New Church could not be instituted before the last 
judgment had been accomplished, because otherwise holy 
things would have been profaned. It was promised that the 
spiritual sense of the Word would then be disclosed, and the 
coming of the Lord, who is the Word, would take place. 
The reason why but few at the present day have religion is : 
First, because it is not known that the Lord is the Only God 
who rules heaven and earth ; and thus that He is God in 
person and in essence, in whom is a Trinity : when yet the 
whole of religion is based on the knowledge of God, and on 
His adoration and worship. Second, because it is not known 
that faith is nothing else but truth ; and because it is not 
known whether that which is called faith is truth, or not. 
Third, because it is not known what charity is, nor conse- 
quently what good and evil are. Fourth, because it is not 
known what eternal life is. In proportion as the truths of 
life are made matters of life, in the same proportion the 
truths of faith become matters of faith ; and it is not possible 
for them to become such in any other way. Some things 
are matters of knowledge and not of faith." 

In 1 771 Swedenborg completed and published his prom- 
ised crowning work, as in fact it was the last year of his life. 
Its title translated is The True Christian Religion, containing 
the Universal Theology of the New Church foretold by the 
Lord in Daniel, chap. vii. 13, 14, and in the Apocalypse, chap. 
xxi. 1, 2. "By Emanuel Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord 
Jesus Christ." The author had a desire to publish it at Paris, 
but obtaining permission from the censor only on condition 
that it should bear the false imprint of London or Amster- 



3l6 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

dam, he scorned the evasion and published it at Amsterdam. 1 
The original edition is in one quarto volume. The English 
editions have from one to three volumes. To give a full idea 
of the contents would exceed our limits. Whoever would 
know in full what the doctrines of the New Church really are 
should read the book. Their summary, contained in the 
Introduction, we have already given. The subjects of the 
chapters are as follows : — 

i. God, the Creator. 2. The Lord, the Redeemer. 3. 
The Holy Spirit, and The Divine Operation. 4. The Sacred 
Scripture, or Word of the Lord. 5. The Catechism or 
Decalogue explained as to its external and internal sense. 6. 
Faith. 7. Charity, or Love to the Neighbor; and Good 
Works. 8. Free Agency. 9. Repentance. 10. Reforma- 
tion and Regeneration. 11. Imputation. 12. Baptism. 13.% 
The Holy Supper. 14. The Consummation of the Age ; 
the Coming of the Lord ; and the New Church. 

At the close of the chapters "Memorable Relations" are 
added, illustrating the subject matter by things heard and 
seen in the other world, as in The Apocalypse Revealed and 
Conjugial Love. Indeed some of the relations are the same 
as before given in those works, and much of the other mate- 
rial of the work is the same as had been previously printed in 
smaller works, while the whole arrangement and the greater 
part of the matter are new. 

In style we notice an increased maturity and clearness of 
expression, a fondness for practical illustration, and an over- 
flowing goodness of heart that would fain impress upon his 
readers what is necessary for their salvation, thus endearing 
the book to all who accept its doctrine. 

As to the style of Swedenborg's theological works, however, 
there should perhaps be a word said for the benefit of unac- 

1 Singularly, an aged Paris bookseller told the Rev. J. H. Smithson, in 1826, 
that some fifty years before, he had met with The True Christian Religion, 
and thinking it a very curious book had sent to Amsterdam and bought up all 
the copies he could find. So in fact the work had always been for sale in Paris, 
and a few copies were still on hand. English Ed. J.F.f.TafePs Documents, 115. 



SWEDENBORG'S TERMS. 



317 



customed ears, to whom it is strange. A part of the awk- 
wardness in English has been due to the unskilfulness of 
translators. But with utmost skill it is impossible to render 
Swedenborg's language into familiar English, without loss of 
meaning. The simple reason is that his meaning, being 
spiritual and reaching beyond time and space, can be ade- 
quately expressed only by abstract terms of indefinite appli- 
cation ; in short by adjectives, and these often of new coin- 
age or with new meaning. This use of the Latin language is 
not awkward, nor new. The mediaeval and later philosophers 
had fitted the language to Swedenborg's hand. But in Eng- 
lish the use is new and strange; and there is no help for it, 
but to get accustomed to it : then there is no trouble. 

One of Swedenborg's oldest living translators, Dr. Wilkin- 
son, has recently declared that he at first '*' had the feeling 
that it would be easy and right to popularize him somewhat, 
and to melt down his Propriinn and his Scientifics, his Goods 
and Truths and Uses, and many other of his terms." But at 
last, he says, he learned to come close to his author's terms, 
and as far as possible get into the marrow of them ; and then 
he did not want to melt them down, but felt sure " that they 
are a genuine coinage which the reader, when he learns it, 
will never wish to see defaced in any the least lineament, lest 
a value which is priceless be lost or altered thereby. . . . 
Furthermore, doctrinal statements involve the use of terms, 
indeed, technical terms ; and where the teaching, the truths, 
are new to the mind, the creation of new technical terms to 
express them. Accordingly, Swedenborg's works are techni- 
cal so far as it is necessary, and the terms he employs are the 
ultimate basis of his doctrines. ... No man has brought his 
communication of ideas to greater definition. Coleridge said 
to the late Mr. Charles Augustus Tulk, that were he writing 
a treatise on logic, he should select instances from Sweden- 
borg's works, so perfect did he regard them as chains of rea- 
soning. But Swedenborg has a merit which transcends logic. 
The fountains and principles from which the stream flows are 



3 I 8 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

divinely true ; and they are signalized by adequate terms 
which contain them, sum them up, and send them forth." x 

As The True Christian Religion was the last treatise com- 
pleted by Swedenborg, this is the fitting place to review the 
nature of his mission. The mission was to unfold the interior 
senses of the Word and draw from it true doctrine, making its 
light to appear before men, whereby they might see in it, as 
in the clouds of heaven, the face of their Lord Jesus Christ. 
This enlightenment of minds was to be the intellectual part of 
the Lord's promised second coming, the voluntary part being 
the acceptance in the heart of His Spirit ; the one being the 
means and complement of the other. The enlightenment, as 
well as the grace of heart, is from the Lord alone ; but since, 
as we have seen (p. 246), the degree of enlightenment de- 
pends also on the knowledge of both spiritual and natural 
things stored in the mind, together with the development of 
the power of reason, Swedenborg was prepared intellectually 
for his work, first, by vast training and acquirements in the 
knowledge and philosophic discussion of natural things, and 
second, by unprecedented experience of spiritual things. 
Nor perhaps was the experience of the heart less remarkable, 
whereby it was released from the bonds of self and selfish 
spiritual association. The preparation was, indeed, such that 
Swedenborg would certainly have soon entered upon the very 
work designed for him, of apparently his own determination, 
if the Lord had not revealed to him that the preparation and 
the purpose were His, and that the work must be done in 
His name, with Him alone for guide. Thus armed and pro- 
tected, it was permitted Swedenborg to see plainly the spirits 
and angels about him and to whom he came, and to learn 
from them innumerable things about their world, which served 
him as aids in receiving enlightenment from the Lord in His 
Word. Innumerable things he was permitted to relate for 

1 Address at the Seventy-second Anniversary of the Swedenborg Society: 
London, 1882. 



THE MISSION FULFILLED. 319 

the use of men ; but this was wholly subsidiary to the main 
purpose, of unfolding the interiors of the Word. 

The time appointed for this new revelation of the Lord in 
His Word was that when on earth His Church, relying on 
and perverting the literal sense, had brought its usefulness 
about to an end; when the newly-developed reason had 
asserted its own rights and had begun, on the one hand, to 
declare that there is no God, and on the other, to admit its 
own inability to discover what the heart knew to exist ; when, 
by aid of the press and of instruments of precision, both the 
Gospel and numerous scientific facts were in the hands of 
the people, giving a groundwork of moral and mental intelli- 
gence : and lastly when, as we learn from Swedenborg, the 
world of spirits, with its hordes of pretended but lying and 
deceitful Christians, was pressing hard upon heaven and was 
ripe for judgment. The publication on earth of the interior 
real meaning of the Word — not in its fulness, for that is im- 
possible, but in so much as an enlightened man could per- 
ceive and express in his own language — was the ultimate 
basis, or fulcrum, by which it could be taught and enforced 
in the world of spirits, and was in so far a means by which 
the judgment there was effected. At the same time the true 
doctrine thus drawn from the Word — that which accords 
with the interior heavenly sense — was revealed as the doc- 
trine for the New Church on earth, as it is that of the New 
Heaven. 

The mere annunciation, however, of the doctrine of the 
New Church, in formula, was not enough. This Church is 
not to be a Church of forms or of creeds, but a Church for 
the new age of the world, the mature age, when the matters 
of faith are to be rationally understood, to be found in con- 
sonance with sound philosophy, and to be supported and 
illustrated by all things in heaven and earth. 

"In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to 
Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the 
Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the 



320 DOCTRINAL TREATISES. 

Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt 
and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land ; 
whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless saying, Blessed be 
Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and 
Israel Mine inheritance." (Isaiah xix. 23-25.) 

Egypt is the scientific mind, Assyria is the rational mind, 
and Israel is the spiritual mind. In the Church that is to be, 
the scientific mind will lead the way up into the rational 
mind, and the rational mind into the spiritual mind; the 
scientific and the rational will be recognized in their place 
and use by the spiritual mind, and the spiritual mind will 
be recognized by the others as the inheritance of the Lord. 
The scientific mind has reached a high pitch of development. 
The rational mind is not far behind. The development of 
these is effected as of the man's own power in the light of 
nature, without recognized Divine guidance. But the light 
of the spiritual mind is Divine light itself, which cannot enter 
except in humility of heart with acknowledgment of its source. 
Its doctrine, though it be gathered with laborious scientific 
and rational research from the Word of God, is yet seen to be 
not the mind's own, but given it from God out of heaven. 

It was with this full acknowledgment, this clear vision, that 
Swedenborg attached to the titlepage of his Brief Exposition 
of the Doctrine of the New Church the verse of the Apoca- 
lypse already quoted, and that to the same verse he attached 
his own name in the autograph of which we are enabled to 
present a fac-simile. 1 

1 The original is possessed by Mr. Horace P. Chandler of Boston. Proba- 
bly it was a memento to a friend, perhaps on the fly-leaf of a book. The date is 
but a year and a half before Swedenborg's death, and the hand is feebler than 
that of an earlier date. On the same day he wrote to Dr. Beyer, bidding him 
farewell, as he was about leaving Stockholm for Amsterdam to publish Tfie 
True Christian Religion. 









..A 



* I 

1 s 

H 



T 



* 



t 
V5 



^ 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CONCLUSION OF LIFE. FRIENDS OF LATER YEARS. 

In the few months of life remaining after this last work 
was published, Swedenborg went on writing and preparing 
materials for an Appendix, or Coronis, treating of the four 
Churches which had already existed on earth, and of the 
New Church now to be established. But his work in this 
world was more nearly completed than he knew. Born in 
1688, he was now in his eighty-fourth year. Though of 
robust constitution and extremely simple habits, his frame 
could not last always. He had exhausted the measure of his 
days in completing the work given him to do in this world, 
— a work which in its spiritual part belonged not less to the 
other. It was no great change for him to close his eyes 
once more for all time to this world, and to open them for 
eternity in the world where for twenty- seven years he had 
been not less at home than here. 

It would be very pleasant for us to find in Swedenborg's 
diaries some account of the spirits and angels with whom he 
found his permanent home in the other world. In his later 
years he occasionally speaks of belonging to a heavenly so- 
ciety, while during the earlier period of his spiritual inter- 
course he appears to have been mostly in a city in the world 
of spirits answering to Stockholm ; 1 but we do not find any- 
thing more definite about the heavenly society. That he was 
in very different spiritual association from what he was in 

1 Spiritual Diary, 5721. That there are cities in the world of spirits 
answering to the cities of this world, see S. D. 5092-94. 



322 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

earlier life is plain enough from the tone of his writings, par- 
ticularly of his letters. The high-spirited, impatient ambition 
of his youth is gone. In place there is all gentleness and 
love and trust in the Providence of the Lord, from which it 
was as evident to his friends that he was in company with 
angels, as it had been to his father when in infancy they 
seemed to speak through his mouth. New friends on earth, 
too, had gathered about him, few but good, attracted by the 
angelic wisdom that now unmistakably flowed from his tongue 
and pen. Such a friend was the Rev. Thomas Hartley, a 
clergyman of the Church of England and rector of Winwick, 
Northamptonshire. Witness the following letter, written in 
1769: — 

"Most respected and beloved Sir, — I consider myself most highly 
favored and I rejoice from my inmost heart in having had the honor, 
which you lately granted me, of conversing with you ; and also in your 
having been so kind and friendly towards me who am quite unworthy 
of such a favor. But your charity towards the neighbor, the heavenly 
benignity shining from your countenance, and your childlike simplic- 
ity, devoid of all vain show and egotism, are so great, and the treas- 
ure of wisdom possessed by you is so sweetly tempered with gentle- 
ness, that it did not inspire in me a feeling of awe, but one of love, 
which refreshed me in my innermost heart. Believe me, O best of 
men, that by my intercourse with you I consider myself crowned with 
more than royal favors ; for who among kings, if he is of a sane mind, 
would not gladly converse with an inhabitant of heaven, while here on 
earth ? But the things which are hidden from the great men upon 
earth are revealed to the humble. 

" In speaking with you every suspicion of flattery must be hushed. 
For what ground for flattery can there be when I attribute everything 
in you, however great and extraordinary it may be, to' the Lord, and 
not to yourself, and when I look upon you only as an instrument of 
His mercy and great kindness ? But may I be permitted to offer honor 
and glory to the instrument, — for this is well-pleasing to the Lord; 
and may I be permitted to tell you from a heart full of gratitude, that 
I consider myself thrice blessed that your writings, by the Divine Pro- 
vidence, have fallen into my hands ? For from them, as from a living 
fountain, I have drawn so many things, as well for instruction and 
edification as for my great delight, and I have been freed by them 
from so many fears, and from so many errors, doubts, and opinions 
which held my mind in perplexity and bondage, that I seem to myself 



FRIENDS AT HOME. 323 

sometimes as if transferred among the angels. May the Lord, the 
Highest and Best, forbid that I deceive myself with a vain and pre- 
mature hope ; and may He always keep me in a state of humility and 
repentance, anxious to shun all evil and ready to do all good, so that 
I may safely and happily reach the goal of our destination in the Lord 
Jesus Christ ! " 

The writer goes on to ask a few questions as to doctrinal 
points, and then begs Swedenborg to give him some state- 
ments about himself and his position in his own country, to 
be used in case of question ; and he adds that, should he be 
in danger of persecution there for his opinions, he will be 
most welcome in England, where a home with all comforts 
will be provided for him by Dr. Messiter and himself. 

Swedenborg in reply thanked Mr. Hartley for his kindness 
and friendship, and said, — "The praises with which you 
overwhelm me, I receive simply as expressions of your love 
for the truths contained in my writings ; and I refer them to 
the Lord, our Saviour, as their source, from whom is every- 
thing true, because He is the Truth Itself (John xiv. 6)." 
Then giving a brief account of his family and position in 
Sweden, he concluded as follows : — 

" Moreover, all the bishops of my native country, who are 
ten in number, and also the sixteen senators, and the rest of 
those highest in office, entertain feelings of affection for me ; 
from their affection they honor me, and I live with them on 
terms of familiarity, as a friend a§nong friends, — the reason of 
which is that they know I am in company with angels. Even 
the K.ing and the Queen and the three princes, their sons, 
show me great favor. I was invited once by the King and 
Queen to dine with them at their own table, which honor is 
generally accorded only to those who are highest in office ; 
subsequently the Crown Prince granted me the same favor. 
They all desire me to return home ; wherefore I am far from 
apprehending in my own country that persecution which you 
fear, and against which in your letter you desire in so friendly 
a manner to provide ; and if they choose to persecute me 
elsewhere, it can do me no harm." 



324 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

Mr. Hartley remained through life a steadfast friend to 
Swedenborg, and showed his zeal and ability by translating 
and prefacing several of his works for the English public. 
How well suited he was to appreciate the spirit of these works 
we may judge, not only from his own letters and prefaces, 
but also from what is said of him in the published diary of 
religious experience of Samuel Scott, "a distinguished mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends " : — 

" Fifth month, 22, 1782. — At dinner we were unexpectedly visited 
by our ancient friend, Thomas Hartley ; probably for the last time, — 
he appearing to be much emaciated, and his countenance languid and 
meagre, but attended with a fresh and lively sense of vital and ex- 
perimental religion. Retiring with him from some company who 
were present, he expressed himself in much tenderness of spirit to 
the following effect : ' O my dear friend ! I have lately passed 
through many fiery trials and deep baptisms, such as I had never 
before fully experienced : all the secret and concealed sins of my 
former life, even many which had passed unnoticed, have been 
brought to light and set in order before me. I have been laid 
more low than ever, before the throne, and so humbled in a sense 
of my own nothingness, that I could stoop even to the meanest of my 
fellow-creatures. But I hope these severe dispensations have been 
for my further purification and meetness for that rest and glory which 
will be the fruition of sanctified spirits to all eternity.' In the year 
1776 I was introduced to a personal acquaintance with him, by a 
worthy minister in our own Society, and esteem the same one of the 
blessings of my advanced years, for which I am accountable to the 
Author of every good gift. He lived some years in the neighborhood 
of Hertford and left a sweet savor behind him, both among rich and 
poor. It was my lot to differ much from him in my natural disposi- 
tion, and also in some points to which he was much attached ; but he 
sought not so much to promote the sentimental part of religion as the 
life of righteousness, and the experimental knowledge of the cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, which crucifies the corrupt propensities of 
fallen nature and produces the fruits of the spirit, which are love, 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 

"Eighth month, 25, 1783. — I received a letter from our dear and 
worthy friend, Thomas Hartley; who, although aged and infirm, ap- 
pears to retain a fresh and lively sense of that true and experimental 
religion which consists, not in the letter, but in the spirit, and of that 
circumcision which is inward. 

" Twelfth month, 20, 1784. — This day I was informed of the decease 



THOMAS HARTLEY. 



325 



of my dear and worthy friend, Thomas Hartley, who departed this 
life the 10th inst. ... He was a man of unaffected piety, great sin- 
cerity, and exquisite sensibility ; deeply suffering under a sense of his 
own defects in particular, and of the depravity of fallen nature in 
general ; following a crucified Saviour in the regeneration, according 
to his measure : there is abundant cause for a comfortable hope that 
he now rests from his labors, - where the wicked cease from troubling 
and the weary are at rest.' " 

From such a man and friend as this Mr. Hartley, the fol- 
lowing sentences addressed to the first translator of The 
True Christian Religion, the Rev. J. Clowes, are of much 
interest : — 

" The great Swedenborg was a man of uncommon humility, and so 
far from affecting to be the head of a sect that his voluminous writ- 
ings in divinity continued almost to the end of his life to be anony- 
mous publications ; and I have some reason to think that it was owing 
to my remonstrance with him on this subject that he was induced to 
prefix his name to this his last work. He was of a catholic spirit 
and loved all good men in every church, making at the same time all 
candid allowance for the innocency of involuntary error; but as he 
found himself obliged to point out the false doctrines in the several 
churches with an impartial freedom, it must be expected that his writ- 
ings will meet with opposition from bigots in all churches. . . . Now, 
that any extraordinary messenger to the world, faithful to his commis- 
sion in the delivery of Divine Truths, without respect of persons, 
should meet with opposition, is so far from being any just cause of 
offence to us, that it should serve to confirm us in the belief of his 
legation, inasmuch as Divine Truth must ever be contrary to the in- 
clinations, maxims, and pursuits of a degenerate world, the reason- 
ings of which will ever be according to its governing principles ; and 
therefore it was that the essential Truth of God in the person of 
Christ was to suffer persecution. But wisdom is justified of her chil- 
dren, even such as have their hearts turned towards God ; and in res- 
pect to such, Truth carries in it native evidence and conviction, so as 
to supersede the necessity of argument, according to those words of 
our Lord, ' If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine 
whether it be of God.' 

" Our author ever kept the Holy Scriptures in view ; they were his 
light and guide, his shield and buckler on all occasions; his reason- 
ings are grounded on their authority, and he is abundantly copious in 
the proofs he draws from them in support of whatever doctrine he 
advances. On this foundation he builds, and a surer one can no one 



326 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

lay; he expounds the lively oracles by their harmonizing sense in dif- 
ferent parts of them, and opens their spiritual meaning like the scribe 
instructed unto the kingdom of heaven ; and of this he has in particu- 
lar given us satisfying evidence in his exposition of the Apocalypse. 

"And yet let it be remarked here, that however high he stands in 
the character of the enlightened divine, however zealous he appeared 
for Truth and the instruction of his brethren, and, lastly, however self- 
denying in his own particular case as to gratifications and indulgences, 
even within the bounds of moderation, yet nothing severe, nothing of 
the precisian, appeared in him ; but, on the contrary, an inward seren- 
ity and complacency of mind were manifest in the sweetness of his 
looks and outward demeanor ; and in his writings so far is he from 
affecting any stoical stiffness or severity, that in several parts of them 
he allows to Christian liberty its full scope, and nowhere censures 
social entertainments and amusements properly conducted. . . . 

" It may reasonably be supposed that I have weighed the character 
of our illustrious author in the scale of my best judgment, from the 
personal knowledge I had of him, from the best information I could 
procure concerning him, and from a diligent perusal of his writings ; 
and according thereto I have found him to be the sound divine, the 
good man, the deep philosopher, the universal scholar, and the polite 
gentleman ; and I further believe that he had a high degree of illumi- 
nation from the Spirit of God, was commissioned by Him as an extra- 
ordinary messenger to the world, and had communication with angels 
and the spiritual world beyond any since the time of the apostles." 

Together with Mr. Hartley should be mentioned the friend 
who joined with him in offering to provide Swedenborg a 
home in England, — Dr. H. Messiter, a an eminent physician," 
according to Mr. Hartley, living at Fulham, Middlesex. He 
is the one to whom Mr. Hartley refers when he says of his ac- 
quaintance with Swedenborg, — "I have conversed with him 
at different times, and in company with a gentleman of a 
learned profession and of extensive intellectual abilities : we 
have had a confirmation of these things from his own mouth, 
and have received his testimony, and do both of us consider 
this our acquaintance with the author and his writings among 
the greatest blessings of our lives." 

Swedenborg's confidence in Dr. Messiter is shown by 
his requesting him to send some of his theological works to 
the Professors of Divinity in the Scottish universities. In 



DR. MESSITER. 



327 



Dr. Messiter's letter "to the Professor of Divinity at Edin- 
burgh" (Robert Hamilton), he says, — 

" As I have had the hpnor of being frequently admitted to the au- 
thor's company when he was in London, and to converse with him on 
various points of learning, I will venture to affirm that there are no 
parts of mathematical, philosophical, or medical knowledge, — nay, I 
believe I might justly say, of human literature, — to which he is in the 
least a stranger ; yet so totally insensible is he of his own merit that 
I am confident he does not know he has any ; and, as himself some- 
where says of the angels, he always turns his head away on the slight- 
est encomium. What he knows of the most interesting and noble 
science of all, I most humbly submit, Sir, to your better judgment : 
yet I must say that, though I have read much of the historical and 
mystical proofs of the truth of Scripture, I have never yet met with 
any assertions so wonderfully affecting the mind of man." 

"To the Professor of Divinity at Glasgow" (R. Traill), he 
writes, — 

" As I have had often the honor of conversing with him, I can 
with great truth assert that he is truly amiable in his morals, most 
learned and humble in his discourse, and superlatively affable, hu- 
mane, and courteous in his behavior ; and this joined with a solidity 
of understanding and penetration far above the level of an ordinary 
genius. Thus much I know of him and therefore sacredly affirm, 
though not without an humble deference to your opinion of his 
writings." 

And "to the Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen" (Alexan- 
der Gerard) , he says, after mentioning the sending of the 
books, — 

" I wish, good Sir, you may think them worthy of your perusal, as 
they are the productions of a man whose good qualities, resulting 
from his natural, acquired, and blessed abilities, I can with much 
truth, from my frequent converse with him, assert are a high orna- 
ment to human nature." 

Dr. Messiter attended Swedenborg in his last illness, and 
to him, in company with Mr. Hartley, Swedenborg, a few 
days before his death, affirmed most solemnly, — 

" I have written nothing but the truth, as you will have it 
more and more confirmed hereafter all the days of your life, 
provided you always keep close to the Lord and faithfully 



328 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

serve Him alone, in shunning evils of all kinds as sins against 
Him, and diligently searching His Sacred Word, which from 
beginning to end bears incontestable testimony to the truth 
of the doctrines I have delivered to the world. 

From Dr. William Spence's Essays in Divinity and Phy- 
sic, published in 1 792, we receive this curious story in regard 
to the end of Dr. Messiter's life : — 

" Having had the favor of the doctor's company to dine with me 
and a few friends, a few weeks before his decease, some of the com- 
pany having heard that the doctor had asked the question, wished to 
know whether Swedenborg had mentioned when this New-Jerusalem 
doctrine might be established, as at that time the regular clergy seemed 
almost all to refuse it ; to which the doctor said, the Baron's answer 
to him was, that times and seasons were in God's hands, therefore he 
could not positively say when ; yet thus much he was allowed to tell 
Kim, that he [Dr. M.] would probably live thirteen years, just to see 
it in its bud. ' Now,' says the doctor, ' it is just thirteen years that 
I have lived, as he foretold, to see it in its bud, through your little 
society's encouraging the printing of his works.' The doctor also 
confirmed what Mr. Shearsmith and his wife, in whose house he died, 
have declared upon oath, that Swedenborg knew and foretold the 
Sunday evening he was to leave them, and that to the last he asserted 
that the 'doctrine will be received in God's good time, because the 
Lord has promised it in His Word.' . . . 

"I had promised," says Dr. Spence, "to return the doctor's visit 
with my spouse the first good weather ; but a few weeks after, hear- 
ing that Dr. Messiter had died suddenly, I told my wife that she was 
now too late in returning the doctor's visit, as his thirteen years 
were now quite out ; yet luckily the doctor did not seem to suspect it 
in the limited sense." 

Let it here be said of Dr. Spence that, though never hav- 
ing personally met Swedenborg, he was one of the friends of 
the New Church who held a first public meeting, in 1783, 
and one of the five who in 1 785 undertook the publication 
of The Apocalypse Explained. He is described by Nor- 
denskold as "a physician and apothecary, an extremely 
honest and benevolent gentleman, although his means were 
limited." 

Another friend at this time was General Tuxen, holding 



GENERAL TUXEN. 



329 



an important office under the Danish Government at Elsi- 
nore, to whom we are indebted for pleasing glimpses of Swe- 
denborg in common life, as also for trustworthy accounts of 
some unusual events. Tuxen was induced to seek an inter- 
view with Swedenborg on account of the remarkable stories 
he had heard of his intercourse with the other world. At 
his request, when next the object of his curiosity stopped at 
Elsinore, on his passage through the Sound, he was notified 
by the Swedish consul and invited to meet him at dinner at 
the consul's house. Says Tuxen, — 

"I made all possible haste, and on entering the house I ad- 
dressed the Assessor as being an intimate friend of the consul's, 
who came on purpose to have the honor of the acquaintance of so 
celebrated and learned a man as himself ; and I requested his per- 
mission to ask him a few questions. To this he civilly and mildly 
answered, 'Ask what you please; I will answer all in truth.' My 
first question was, whether the relation reported as having passed be- 
tween himself and the Queen in Stockholm was true. He answered, 
' Tell me in what manner you have heard it related, and I will tell 
you what part of it is true or otherwise.' I replied that, as I saw he 
was on the point of going on board the vessel,. I supposed there was 
no time to lose, and therefore desired he would have the kindness to 
relate the affair to me. He consented, and told it me in the same 
manner as I had been informed of it before by means of letters from 
people of credit ; adding, however the following circumstances." . . . 

As this story told by Tuxen is rather long, we omit it now, 
and will presently give its substance as told more concisely by 
Baron Hopken. General Tuxen continues : — % 

"In the course of further conversation on the principles of religion 
advocated and explained by him, I took an opportunity of asking him 
how a man who was confident of being serious in his duty towards 
God and his neighbor, could be certain whether he was in the right 
road to salvation or not. I was answered that this was very easy, 
and that such a man need only examine himself and his own thoughts 
according to the Ten Commandments ; as, for instance, whether he 
loves and fears God ; whether he is happy in seeing the welfare of 
others and does not envy them ; whether on having received a great 
injury from others, which may have excited him to anger and revenge, 
he afterwards changes his sentiments because God has said that 
vengeance belongs to Him ; and so on. Then he may rest assured 



330 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

that he is on the road to heaven ; but when he discovers himself to 
be actuated by contrary sentiments, on the road to hell. This led me 
to think of myself as well as of others. 

" I also asked him whether he had seen the lately deceased King 
Frederic V., adding that, although some human frailty or other might 
be attributed to him, yet I had certain hopes that he was happy. His 
answer was, ' Yes, I have seen him, and I know that he is very happy ; 
and not only he, but likewise all the kings of the house of Oldenburg, 
who are all associated together. This is not the happy case with our 
vSwedish kings, some of whom are not so well off.' This he said in 
the presence of the consul and the Swedish captain with whom he 
sailed. 

" He added further : ' In the world of spirits I have not seen any 
one so splendidly served and waited on as the deceased Empress 
Elizabeth of Russia.' As I expressed much astonishment at this, he 
continued, ' I could also tell you the reason, which few could surmise, 
namely, that with all her faults she had a good heart, and with her 
neglect or indifference a certain consideration which induced her pur- 
posely to postpone signing many edicts and papers that were from 
time to time presented to her; for which reason they multiplied to 
such a degree that at last she could not examine or peruse them, but 
was obliged to believe the representations of the ministers and sign 
as many as possible ; after which she would retire into her closet, fall 
on her knees, and beg forgiveness of God if she had against her will 
signed anything that was wrong.' When this conversation was ended, 
Swedenborg in a friendly and civil manner took leave and went on 
board. 

" Some time afterwards I learned that Swedenborg, who was on 
his last journey to Amsterdam arid London [1770], had been detained 
for four days by a contrary wind on board a Swedish ship, anchored a 
few miles from Elsinore. I therefore took a boat and went off to see 
him ; on my inquiring whether Assessor Swedenborg was on board, 
the captain answered in the affirmative, bade me welcome, and opened 
the cabin-door, which as soon as I entered he shut after me. I found 
the Assessor seated in undress, his elbows on the table, his hands sup- 
porting his face, which was turned towards the door, his eyes open 
and much elevated. I was so imprudent as immediately to address 
him, expressing my happiness at seeing and speaking with him. At 
this he recovered himself, for he had really been in a trance, or 
ecstasy, as his posture evinced, and rising with some confusion ad- 
vanced a few steps from the table in singular and visible uncertainty 
expressed by his countenance and hands; from which, however, he 
soon recovered, bidding me welcome and asking me whence I came. 
I answered that as I had heard he was on board a Swedish ship lying 



GENERAL TUXEN. 33 I 

below the Koll, I had come to invite him on the part of my wife and 
myself to favor us with his company at our house. To this he imme- 
diately consented, pulling off his gown and slippers, putting on clean 
linen, and dressing himself as briskly and alertly as a young man of 
one and twenty. He told the captain where he was to be found if 
the wind became favorable, and accompanied me to Elsinore. 

" Here my wife, who was then indisposed, was waiting to welcome 
him and to request him to excuse us if our house should in any re- 
spect fall short of our wishes to entertain him, adding that she had f or 
these thirty years past been afflicted with a violent hysterical disease, 
which occasioned her much pain and uneasiness. He very politely 
kissed her hand and answered, ' Oh dear ! of this we will not speak ; 
only acquiesce in the will of God ; it will pass away and you will again 
attain the same health and beauty as when you were fifteen years of 
age.' I do not recollect what she or I answered to this ; but I re- 
marked that in answer to us he replied, ' Yes, in a few weeks ; ' from 
which I concluded that diseases which have their foundation in the 
mind, and are maintained by the infirmities and pains of the body, 
do not leave man immediately on the separation of the body. . . . 

" I do not remember on what occasion he told me that the King 
had issued a circular letter to all the Consistories in Sweden, request- 
ing them to send a statement of their grounds of complaint against 
Swedenborg's writings and explanations in religion ; and that the 
King, the last time he spoke with him on the subject, familiarly laid 
his hand on his shoulder and said, ' They will not make any reply to 
me, although I have demanded their explicit answers.' " 

The evening was passed with the General, his wife, who 
was an excellent singer, her daughter, who played on the 
harpsichord, and several young ladies. Swedenborg was de- 
lighted with their music and made himself agreeable to all, 
declaring, in reply to his host's regret at having no better 
company for him, that he had always been partial to ladies' 
society. General Tuxen concludes : — 

" For my part, I thank our Lord, the God of Heaven, that I have 
been acquainted with this great man and his writings. I esteem this 
as the greatest blessing I have ever experienced in my life, and I hope 
I shall profit by them in working out my salvation. My valued guest 
afterwards took his coffee with a few biscuit, and I accompanied him 
on board the vessel. Here he took leave of me for the last time in a 
very affectionate manner, and I hope I shall in the other life testify to 
him my grateful heart." 



332 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

Swedenborg had mentioned to Tuxen the name of Count 
Anders Johan Von Hopken, as a friend in Sweden who had 
some interest in his writings. Count Hopken was a man of 
great literary distinction, a Senator, and for a time held office 
equivalent to being Prime Minister of Sweden. His acquain- 
tance with Swedenborg is thus set forth by himself in a letter 
to Tuxen : — 

" I have not only known him these two and forty years, but also, 
some time since, daily frequented his company. A man who like me 
has lived long in the world and even in an extensive career of life, 
must have had numerous opportunities of knowing men as to their 
virtues or vices, their weakness or strength ; and in consequence 
thereof I do not recollect to have known any man of more uniformly 
virtuous character than Swedenborg, — always contented, never fretful 
or morose, although throughout his life his soul was occupied with 
sublime thoughts and speculations. He was a true philosopher and 
lived like one ; he labored diligently, and lived frugally without sor- 
didness ; he travelled continually, and his travels cost him no more 
than if he had lived at home. He was gifted with a most happy 
genius, and a fitness for every science, which made him shine in all 
those which he embraced. He was without contradiction the most 
learned man in my country. In his youth he was a great poet : I have 
in my possession some remnants of his Latin poetry which Ovid 
would not have been ashamed to own. 1 In his middle age his Latin 
was in an easy, elegant, and ornamental style ; in his latter years it 
was equally clear, but less elegant after he had turned his thoughts to 
spiritual subjects. He was well acquainted with Hebrew and Greek, 
an able and profound mathematician, a happy mechanician, of which he 
gave proof in Norway, where, by an easy and simple method, he trans- 
ported the largest galleys over high mountains and rocks to a gulf where 
the Danish fleet was stationed. . . . He possessed a sound judgment 
upon all occasions ; he saw everything clearly and expressed himself 
well on every subject. The most solid memorials and the best penned 
at the Diet of 1761, on matters of finance, were presented by him. 
... I once represented in rather a serious manner to this venerable 
man, that I thought he would do better not to mix with his beautiful 
writings so many ' memorable relations,' or things heard and seen in 
the spiritual world concerning the states of men after death, of which 
ignorance makes a jest and derision. But he answered me that this 
did not depend on him ; that he was too old to sport with spiritual 

1 Count Hopken himself is called in the Swedish Biographical Dictionary 
" the Swedish Tacitus." 



COUNT HOPKEN. 333 

things, and too much concerned for his eternal happiness to yield 
to such foolish notions ; assuring me on his hopes of salvation that 
imagination produced in him none of his revelations, which were 
true and from what he had heard and seen." 

In another letter Count Hopken recurs to the same point : 
speaking of a certain clergyman, he says, — 

" He was by no means a Swedenborgian, for he did not understand 
his ' memorable relations ; ' and I could wish the happy deceased had 
left them out, as they may prevent infidelity from approaching his 
doctrines. I represented to him these inconveniences ; but he said 
that he was commanded to declare what he had seen in the other 
world ; and he related it as a proof that he did not reveal his own 
thoughts, but that they came from above. As for the rest, I find in 
his system a simplicity and gradation, and such a spirit as the work 
of God in nature everywhere proves and exhibits ; for whatever man 
creates is complicated, labored, and subject to vicissitude." 

In a letter to another friend, still to the same point, the 
Count says, — 

"There are two circumstances in the doctrine and writings of 
Swedenborg. The first is his 'memorable relations.' Of these I can- 
not judge, not having had any spiritual intercourse myself, by which 
to judge of his assertions either approvingly or disapprovingly; but 
they cannot appear more extraordinary than the Apocalypse of John, 
and other similar relations in the Bible. The second is his tenets of 
doctrine. Of these I can judge : they are excellent, irrefutable, and 
the best that ever were taught, promoting the happiest social life. I 
know that Swedenborg wrote his memorabilia bona fide. . . . 

i: I have sometimes told the King that if ever a new colony were 
to be formed, no religion could be better, as the prevailing and estab- 
lished one, than that developed by Swedenborg from the Sacred 
Scriptures, and this for the two following reasons : First, this re- 
ligion, in preference to and in a higher degree than any other, must 
produce the most honest and industrious subjects; for it properly 
places the worship of God in uses. Second, it causes least fear of 
death, as this religion regards death merely as a transition from one 
state to another, from a worse to a better situation ; nay, upon his 
principles I look upon death as being of hardly any greater moment 
than drinking a glass of water. I have been convinced of the truth 
of Swedenborg's doctrine from these arguments in particular, namely, 
that One is the author of everything, and that a separate person is 
not the Creator, and another the Author of religion ; that there are 



334 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

degrees in everything and these subsisting to eternity ; the history of 
creation is unaccountable unless explained in the spiritual sense. We 
may say of the religion which Swedenborg has developed in his writ- 
ings from the Word of God, with Gamaliel : ' If it be of God, it can- 
not be overthrown ; but if it be of man, it will come to nought.' " 

That Swedenborg on his part held Hopken in high esteem 
is shown by the memorials to the Diet in his favor, to which 
we have already referred (see p. 279). We will take our 
leave of the Count in copying his statement of the "Truth- 
ful account made by the late Queen Dowager " : — 

" Swedenborg was one day at a court reception. Her Majesty [the 
Queen Dowager Louisa Ulrica] asked him about different things in 
the other life, and lastly whether he had seen or talked with her 
brother, the Prince Royal of Prussia. He answered, 'No.' Her 
Majesty then requested him to ask after him, and to give him her 
greeting, which Swedenborg promised to do. I doubt whether the 
Queen meant anything serious by it. At the next reception Sweden- 
borg again appeared at court ; and while the Queen was in the so- 
called white room, surrounded by her ladies of honor, he came boldly 
in and approached her Majesty, who no longer remembered the com- 
mission she had given him a week before. Swedenborg not only 
greeted her from her brother, but also gave her his apologies for not 
having answered her last letter ; he also wished to do so now through 
Swedenborg, which he accordingly did. The Queen was greatly 
overcome, and said, ' No one except God knows this secret.' 

" The reason why the Queen never adverted to this before, was that 
she did not wish any one in Sweden to believe that during a war with 
Prussia she had carried on a correspondence in the enemy's country. 
The same caution her Majesty exercised during her last visit to Berlin. 
When she was asked about this transaction, which had been printed 
in a German paper, she did not answer." 

The same story comes to us through many different chan- 
nels, to substantially the same effect. The account given by 
Mr. Springer, as from Swedenborg himself, contains a varia- 
tion quite likely to be true : — 

" The Queen of Sweden had written letters to her brother, a Prince of 
Prussia ; and having no answers, she doubted whether he had received 
them or not. The Baron [Swedenborg] at that time had converse 
with the Queen, and her brother had died in Prussia. She was very 
desirous to know if he had received the letters. She consulted the 



CHRISTOPHER SPRINGER. 335 

Baron, who said he would inform her in a few days. He did so, and 
told her he had received them and was going to answer them, and 
that in an escritoire of the Prince was a letter unfinished intended for 
her ; but he was taken ill and died. She sent to the King of Prussia, 
and it was as the Baron had foretold, — the King sent the unfinished 
letter." 

The Prince of Prussia referred to was Augustus William, 
brother to Frederic II. and to the Queen Louisa Ulrica, wife 
of Adolphus Frederic, King of Sweden from 1751 to 17 71. 
It is amusingly told, on the authority of the wife of Sweden- 
borg's gardener, that " for days following the occurrence car- 
riages stopped before the door of her master, from which 
the first gentlemen of the kingdom alighted, who desired to 
know the secret of which the Queen was so much frightened ; 
but her master, faithful to his promise, refused to tell it." 

Christopher Springer, whose statement we have just quoted, 
was a Swede, and long a friend of Swedenborg, both in their 
own country and in London, where for political reasons he 
resided many years. He had been prominent in public 
affairs at home, and became the confidential agent of the 
English Government in all that concerned Swedish matters, 
being employed in bringing about peace between Sweden 
and Frederick the Great, in 1762. In London he was re- 
garded as the father of the Swedes, and was applied to for 
all aid and information. In answer to inquiries about Swe- 
denborg, after his decease, Mr. Springer says, — 

" His father, Jesper Swedberg, was Bishop of Skara, a man of great 
learning ; but this Emanuel Swedenborg received richer endowments 
from God. His knowledge as well as his sincerity was great. He 
was constant in friendship, extremely frugal in his diet, and plain in his 
dress. His usual food was coffee with milk, and bread and butter ; 
sometimes, however, he partook of a little fish, and only at rare in- 
tervals ate meat ; and he never drank above two glasses of wine. . . . 

" Two or three weeks before his decease ... I asked him when he 
believed that the New Jerusalem, or the New Church of God, would 
manifest itself, and whether this manifestation would take place in 
the four quarters of the world. His answer was that no mortal and 
not even the celestial angels could predict the time ; that it was solely 
in the will of God. ' Read,' said he, 'the Book of Revelation, xxi. 2, 



336 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

and Zachariah xiv. 19, and you will see there that the New Jerusalem 
will undoubtedly manifest itself to the whole earth.' . . . 

" Fifteen years ago [in 1766] Swedenborg set out for Sweden, and 
asked me to procure a good captain for him, which I did. I con- 
tracted with one whose name was Dixon. . . . When the captain of 
the vessel called for Swedenborg, I took leave of him and wished 
him a happy journey. Having then asked the captain if he had a 
good supply of provisions on board, he answered me that he had as 
much as would be required. Swedenborg then observed, ' My friend, 
we have not need of a great quantity ; for this day week we shall, by 
the aid of God, enter into the port of Stockholm at two o'clock.' On 
Captain Dixon's return, he related to me that this happened exactly 
as Swedenborg had foretold. 

"Two years afterwards Swedenborg returned to London, where we 
continued our former friendship. He told me that he had sent his 
works to the bishops of Sweden, but without result, and that they 
had received him with the same indifference that he had experienced 
from the bishops in England. What a remarkable change I noticed 
among the bishops of London! I had witnessed myself with what 
coldness he was received by them before his departure for Sweden, 
and I saw that on his return he was received by them with the great- 
est civility. I asked him how this change could have come, when he 
answered, ' God knows the time when His Church ought to com- 
mence.' . . . 

" As to what relates to myself, I cannot give you a reason for the 
great friendship Swedenborg entertained for me, who am not a learned 
man. It is true, we were good friends in Sweden ; but that this 
friendship between us should have become as constant as it has been, 
I never expected. 

" All that he has told me of my deceased friends and enemies, and 
of the secrets I had with them, is almost past belief. He even ex- 
plained to me in what manner peace was concluded between Sweden 
and the King of Prussia ; and he praised my conduct on that occasion. 
He even specified the three high personages whose services I made 
use of at that time ; which was, nevertheless, a profound secret be- 
tween us. On asking him how it was possible for him to obtain such 
information, and who had discovered it to him, he replied, 'Who in- 
formed me about your affair with Count Claes Ekeblad ? You can- 
not deny that what I have told you is true. Continue,' he added, 
' to merit his reproaches ; 1 depart not from the good way either for 
honors or money ; but, on the contrary, continue as constant therein 
as you have hitherto, and you will prosper.' " 

1 For refusing a great bribe. 



ARVID FERELIUS. 



337 



Among Swedenborg's' friends in his latter days, if not 
much more than an acquaintance, we may mention Arvid 
Ferelius, pastor of the Swedish Church in London. From 
his position he had serious conversations with Swedenborg, 
administered the Communion to him, and officiated at his 
funeral. There is reason to believe that he was favorably 
impressed with the doctrines his communicant commended 
to him, although he never openly professed them. To a 
friend, Professor at Griefswalde, Ferelius writes, — 

"Assessor Emanuel Swedenborg died in the month of March, 
1772, and was buried by me on April 5th in the burying vault of the 
Swedish Ulrica-Eleonora church ; which was the last clerical duty I 
performed in that country. Towards the close of the year [1771] he 
was touched by paralysis on one side, which rendered his speech 
indistinct, especially when the atmosphere was oppressive. 

" I visited him several times, and asked him each time whether he 
had an idea that he was to die at this time, upon which he answered, 
1 Yes.' 

" Upon this I observed to him, that as quite a number of people 
thought that his sole purpose in promulgating his new theological sys- 
tem had been to make himself a name, or to acquire celebrity, which 
object indeed he had thereby attained, — if such had been the case, 
he ought now to do the world the justice to retract it either in whole 
or in part, especially as he could not expect to derive any additional 
advantage from this world, which he would soon leave. He thereupon 
half rose in his bed, and laying his sound hand upon his breast said, 
with some manifestation of zeal, 'As true as you see me before your eyes, 
so true is everything that I have written ; and I could have said more, 
had it been permitted. When you enter eternity, you will see everything, 
and then you and I shall have much to talk about.' 1 

" When I asked him whether he was willing to receive the Lord's 
Supper, he replied, ' With thankfulness ; ' and then he added that my 
question was very opportune ; and although being a member of the 
other world he did not need this sacrament, he would still take it, in 
order to show the close relation which exists between the Church 
above and the Church here below ; and he then asked whether I had 
read his views about the sacrament of the altar, the Communion. I 
then asked whether he acknowledged himself to be a sinner. He 
replied, ' Certainly, as long as I carry about this sinful body.' 1 With 

1 Or, according to another account, " I am most undoubtedly a sinner ; for 
what other reason should I have to carry about with me this sinful body ? " 

22 



338 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

much devotion, folding his hands and uncovering his head, he read 
the confession of sins and received the holy sacrament. Afterwards, 
from gratitude, he presented me with a copy of his larger work, the 
Arcana Ccelestia, of which only nine copies remained unsold, which 
were to be sent to Holland. 

" When I visited him another time, while I was in the hall and going 
upstairs, I heard him speaking with the greatest energy, as though he 
were addressing a large company ; but as I came into the ante-cham- 
ber where his female attendant was sitting, and asked her who was 
with Assessor Swedenborg, she replied, ' No one ; ' adding that he had 
been speaking in this manner for three days and nights. Upon enter- 
ing his sleeping-room, he bade me welcome with great calmness and 
asked me to take a seat ; he then told me that for ten days and nights 
he had been tormented by evil spirits whom the Lord had sent up to 
him, and that never before had he been infested by such wicked 
spirits ; but that now he was again in the company of good spirits. 

" While he was still in health, I came to him once with the Danish 
pastor, when he was sitting and writing at a round table in the middle 
of the room, with the Hebrew Bible before him, which constituted his 
whole library. After greeting us, he pointed to a place opposite and 
said, 'Just now the Apostle Peter was here and stood there; and not 
very long ago all the Apostles were with me ; indeed, they often visit 
me.' In this manner he always expressed himself without reserve ; 
but he never sought to make proselytes. That upon which he was 
engaged at the time, he said, was to be a demonstration from the 
writings of the Apostles, 1 that the Lord was the only and true God, 
and that there is no other besides Him. 

" Although Swedenborg was several times in the Swedish church 
and afterwards dined with me, or with some other Swede, he said that 
he had no peace in the church on account of the spirits, who contra- 
dicted what the minister said, especially when he treated of three 
persons in the Godhead, which is the same as three Gods. 

This preaching was probably by Mathesius, the colleague of 
Ferelius, who was violently opposed to Svvedenborg's views, 
and of whom we shall presently hear again. Ferelius con- 
tinues, — 

" Some one might think that Assessor Swedenborg was eccentric 
and whimsical ; but the very reverse was the case. He was very easy 
and pleasant in company, talked on every subject that came up, 
accommodating himself to the ideas of the company; and he never 
spoke on his own views, unless he was asked about them. But if he 

1 This would account for the Apostles' presence. 



ERIC BERGSTROM. 339 

noticed that any one asked him impertinent questions, intending to 
make sport of him, he immediately gave such an answer that the 
questioner was obliged to keep silence, without being the wiser for it." 

It is pleasant to learn that the good pastor Ferelius re- 
ceived at Swedenborg's burial his large Hebrew Bible, his 
travelling companion, full of underscored passages. 

While we are upon these little incidents of Swedenborg's 
life in London, let us quote a few other persons to whom 
he was known. Mr. Eric Bergstrom, host of King's Arms 
Tavern, said to Peter Provo, — 

" I was personally acquainted with Assessor Swedenborg : he fre- 
quently called on me, and once lived ten weeks together in this house, 
during which time I observed nothing in him but what was very rea- 
sonable and bespoke the gentleman. He at that time breakfasted on 
coffee, ate moderately at dinner, and drank one or two glasses of wine 
after it, but never more. In the afternoon he drank tea, but never ate 
any supper. He usually walked out after breakfast, generally dressed 
neatly in velvet, and made a good appearance. He was mostly re- 
served, but complaisant to others. 

" He has told me that very few were given to see the things that he 
did, and that he often saw many extraordinary things. Mr. Springer 
once asked him, when at dinner here, about the state of a person 
[Ekeblad ?] who was the occasion of Mr. Springer's being obliged to 
leave Sweden, and who was deceased ; to which he answered that it 
was very bad, and that he hoped his would be better. A secretary of 
Baron Nolcken, who was present, put an impertinent question to him 
of a similar kind, which he refused to answer, observing that he never 
answered such questions as originated in ill-will or malice. . . . 

" Mr. Mathesius was an opponent of Swedenborg and said that he j 
was a lunatic, etc. ; but it is remarkable that he became a lunatic him- 
self, which happened publicly one day when he was in the Swedish I 
church and about to preach. I was there and saw it. He has been | 
so ever since, and was sent back to Sweden, where he now is. This 
was about four years ago. 1 

" In general Swedenborg kept retired and sought to avoid company 

1 It was Mathesius who told this absurd story to Wesley, being enraged by 
Swedenborg's objections to the Lutheran creed. The story was founded on 
information said to have been given by Broekmer, a Moravian, with whom 
Swedenborg lodged at one time in London. These statements Broekmer after- 
wards denied for the most part, though Swedenborg believed that he had 
doubtless made them out of revenge for his exposure of Moravianism. 



34-0 CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 

and making known where he was. Some of his friends here spoke 
against him, and some were for him. For my own part I think he 
was a reasonable, sensible, and good man : he was very kind to all 
and generous to me. As for his peculiar sentiments, I do not meddle 
with them." 

Mr. Hart, son of Mr. John Hart, Svvedenborg's London 
printer, according to Mr. Provo — 

" Thought Swedenborg a remarkable man, for whilst he was abroad 
old Mr. Hart, his father, died in London. On Swedenborg's return he 
went to spend an evening at Mr. Hart's house, in Poppin's Court. 
After being let in at the street door, he was told that his old friend 
Mr. Hart was dead ; to which he replied, ' I know that very well, for 
I saw him in the spiritual world while I was in Holland, at [such a time, 
near the time he died, or soon after] ; also whilst coming over in the 
packet to England : he is not now in heaven, but is coming round and 
in a good way to do well.' This much surprised the widow and son, 
for they knew well he was just come over, and they said that he was 
of such a nature that he could impose on no one, that he always spoke 
the truth concerning every little matter, and would not have made any 
evasion though his life had been at stake. Mr. Hart, the father, 
printed all the Arcana Ccelestia m Latin. Swedenborg was fond of his 
company and often went to spend an evening there : he used to take 
particular notice of Mr. Hart's little girl. 

" Mr. Burkhardt, a Swede and formerly clerk to the Swedish Chapel 
in London, told Mr. Provo in 1783 that he knew Swedenborg and was 
present once when he dined in London with some of the Swedish 
clergy. He said that some argument passed between Swedenborg and 
one of them concerning the Lord and the nature of man's duty to Him, 
and that Swedenborg overthrew the tenets of his opponent, who 
appeared but a child to him in knowledge. Mr. Burkhardt added that 
Swedenborg was a holy, good man, much given to abstraction of mind; 
that even when walking out he sometimes seemed as if in private 
prayer, and latterly took but little notice of things and people in the 
streets." 

John Christian Cuno, soldier, poet, and merchant, of 
Amsterdam, left a manuscript autobiography, in which he 
has much to say of Swedenborg : — 

" I must remain faithful to a promise made last year, and begin by 
giving an account of the most singular saint who has ever lived, Mr. 
Emanuel Swedenborg. As nothing concerns me more in this world 
than the worship of God, and as I found interspersed in the last work 



JOHN CHRISTIAN CUNO. 34I 

of that man such strange and singular things, I was naturally im- 
pelled by an irresistible curiosity, to make the acquaintance of the 
author. . . . 

" The Christian worship of God is subject to this sad calamity in 
this world, that attacks are made upon it either by arrogant fools who 
call themselves strong-minded, or by visionaries ; the latter rendering 
it ridiculous sometimes without wishing to do so, but the former 
endeavoring to do so with all their power. The learned Mr. Sweden- 
borg cannot be classed among freethinkers and enemies of the Chris- 
tian religion ; for he writes with the greatest reverence for God and 
His Word. He has impressed upon me the most profound reverence 
for the adorable Saviour of the world, and his entire system of doctrine 
is based upon His Divinity. . . . 

" I scarcely believe that he has any enemies ; at all events he could 
not have made them by the innocent, even sainted, tenor of his life ; 
and should he have them, it would be impossible for them, as well 
as for the scoffers who examine closely all modes of life different 
from their own, to discover anything in him which they could justly 
find fault with, or even calumniate. . . . 

"My first acquaintance with him dates from November 4, 1768, 
when I happened to meet him in the French book-shop of Mr. Fran- 
cois Changuion. The old gentleman speaks both French and High- 
German, yet not very readily. Besides, he is afflicted with the natural 
infirmity of stammering ; yet at one time more than at another. Our 
first meeting was pleasing and sympathetic. He permitted me to call 
upon him at his own house, which I did on the following Sunday; and 
I continued to do so almost every Sunday, after attending church in 
the morning. He lodged near our old church in Kalbergasse [Amster- 
dam], where he had engaged two comfortable rooms. One of my first 
questions was whether he had no male attendant to wait upon him in 
his old age, and to accompany him on his journeys. He answered 
that he needed no one to look after him, because his angel was ever 
with him, and conversed and held communication with him. If an- 
other man had uttered these words, he would have made me laugh ; 
but I never thought of laughing when this venerable man, eighty-one 
years old, told me this, — he looked far too innocent; and when he 
gazed on me with his smiling blue eyes, which he always did in con- 
versing with me, it was as if truth itself was speaking from them. I 
often noticed with surprise how scoffers, who had made their way into 
large companies where I had taken him, and whose purpose it had 
been to make fun of the old gentleman, forgot all their laughter and 
their intended scoffing ; and how they stood agape and listened to the 
most singular things which he, like an open-hearted child, told about 
the spiritual world, without reserve and with full confidence. It almost 



342 



CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 



seemed as if his eyes possessed the faculty of imposing silence on 
I every one. 

" He lived with simple burgher folks, who kept a shop in which they 
sold chintz, muslin, handkerchiefs, and the like, and who had quite 
a number of little children. I inquired of the landlady whether the 
old gentleman did not require very much attention. She answered, 
' He scarcely requires any ; the servant has nothing else to do for him 
except in the morning to lay the fire for him in the fire-place. Every 
t evening he goes to bed at seven, and gets up in the morning at eight. 
I We do not trouble ourselves any more about him. During the day he 
| keeps up the fire himself, and on going to bed takes great care lest the 
fire should do any damage. He dresses and undresses himself alone, 
and waits upon himself in everything ; so that we scarcely know 
whether there is any one in the house or not. I should like him 
to be with us during the rest of his life. My children will miss him 
most; for he never goes out without bringing them home sweets : the 
little rogues also dote on the old gentleman so much that they prefer 
him to their own parents.' . . . 

" It soon became known in town that I associated with this remark- 
able man, and everybody troubled me to give them an opportunity of 
making his acquaintance. I advised the people to do as I had done, 
and to call upon him, because he willingly conversed with every hon- 
est man. Mr. Swedenborg moves in the world with great tact, and 
knows how to address the high as well as the low. ... 

" Once, at the urgent request of my friend, Mr. Nicolam Konauw, I 
agreed to bring him to dinner. The old gentleman consented and 
was prepared at once to go. Mr. Konauw sent his carriage for us. 
On presenting ourselves to Madame, we found among other guests 
the two Misses Hoog, who had been highly educated and had been 
introduced, beyond the common sphere of woman, into the higher, 
especially the philosophical sciences. Mr. Swedenborg's deportment 
was exquisitely refined and gallant. When dinner was announced, [ 
offered my hand to the hostess, and quickly our young man of eighty- 
one years had put on his gloves and presented his hand to Mademoi- 
selle Hoog, in doing which he looked uncommonly well. Whenever 
he was invited out, he dressed properly and becomingly in black 
velvet ; but ordinarily he wore a brown coat and black trowsers. . . . 

" I shall never forget, as long as I live, the leave which he took of 
me in my own house. It seemed to me as if this truly venerable old 
man was much more eloquent this last time, and spoke differently 
from what I ever heard him speak before. He admonished me to 
continue in goodness and to acknowledge the Lord for my God. ' If it 
please God, I shall once more come to you in Amsterdam ; for I love 
you.' 'O my worthy Mr. Swedenborg,' I interrupted him, 'this will 



JOHN CHRISTIAN CUNO. 343 

probably not take place in this world ; for I, at least, do not attribute 
to myself a long life.' ' This you cannot know,' he continued, ' we are 
obliged to remain as long in the world as the Divine Providence and 
Wisdom see fit. If any one is conjoined with the Lord, he has a 
foretaste of the eternal life in this world ; and if he has this, he no 
longer cares so much about this transitory life. Believe me, if I knew 
that the Lord would call me to Himself to-morrow, I would summon 
the musicians to-day, in order to be once more really gay in this 
world.' In order to feel what I felt then, you would have had to hear 
the old man say this, in his second childhood. This time also he 
looked so innocent and so joyful out of his eyes as I had never seen 
him look before. I did not interrupt him, and was as it were dumb 
with astonishment. He then saw a Bible lying on my desk, and while 
I was thus gazing quietly before me and he could easily see the state 
of my mind, he took the book and opened it at this passage : 1 John 
v. 20, 21. 'Read these words,' he said, and then closed the book 
again, 'but that you may not forget them, I will rather put them down 
for you;' and in saying these words he dipped the pen in order to 
write them on the leaf which is preserved here ; his hand however 
trembled, as may be seen from the figure 1. This I could not bear, 
and so I asked him in a friendly manner to mention the passage to me. 
I then put down the passage myself. As soon as I had done so he 
arose. 'The time now approaches/ he said, 'when I must take leave 
of my other friends.' He then embraced and kissed me most heartily. 
" As soon as he had left, I read the passage which he had recom- 
mended to me. It read thus : ' But we know that the Son of God 
has come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know 
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, 
Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, 
keep yourselves from idols. Amen.' " 

In a sense, Cuno's account is the more valuable for his not 
accepting the whole of Swedenborg's theology. Of his inter- 
course with the other world he does not seem to have any 
serious doubt; but Cuno was too much attached to the 
Lutheran Church to be content with Swedenborg's condemna- 
tion of the doctrine of justification by faith, especially when 
himself accused by his Church of affiliating with its oppo- 
nent. In a few months he wrote and circulated a long letter 
to Swedenborg, over the signature of "Paulus ab Indagine," 
condemning his departure from the Lutheran faith, and ques- 
tioning whether he had not been deceived by his spirits. 



344 



CONCLUSION OF LIFE. 



The letter was not meant to be unfriendly, but its contents 
were quite sufficient to account for Swedenborg's changed 
appearance, when they met again, and for his remark, " If 
you are not willing to believe me, you have expended far too 
much trouble in studying my writings so attentively as you 
have." Cuno soon found, however, that Swedenborg was 
not unfriendly, and they had pleasant meetings when he was 
again in Amsterdam. In 1770 he noted in his memoirs, — 

" Last year I gave my readers many sheets to read respect- 
ing my dear old Swedenborg ; but I am by no means done 
yet with this singular man, and as long as my eyes remain 
open, I shall not so easily turn them away from him. I still 
hear news concerning him from Sweden, nay, a short time 
ago he desired to be remembered to me, and sent me word 
that he hoped to embrace me this summer. The clergy have 
made an assault upon him with all their power, but they 
could not do him any harm, because those high in authority, 
yea, it is said, the King and the Queen, love him." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

STORIES OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. DR. BEYER. — OPPOSITION BY 

THE CLERGY. 

Many must have been the calls Swedenborg received on 
account of his strange gift of spiritual sight, of a few of which 
record has been preserved. One is related in the Theory 
of Pneumatology by J. H. Jung-Stilling, whose name is cited 
in Kurtz's Church History among the five "most brilliant 
and best known names of the faithful sons of the Church " 
who withstood the rationalistic spirit of the age : — 

" As so very much has been written both for and against this extra- 
ordinary man, I consider it my duty to make known the piwe truth 
respecting him, since I have had an opportunity of knowing it pure 
and uncontaminated." 

After declaring that " Swedenborg was no impostor, but a 
pious Christian man," and referring to the "three proofs 
generally known that he had actually intercourse with spirits," 
Stilling continues, — 

" But I must add here a fourth experimental proof which has not 
been made public before, and which is fully as important as any of the 
foregoing. I can vouch for the truth of it with the greatest certainty. 

" About the year 1770 there was a merchant in Elberfeld with whom, 
during seven years of my residence there, I lived in close intimacy. 
He was a strict mystic in the purest sense. He spoke little ; but what 
he said was like golden fruit on a salver of silver. He would not 
have dared, for all the world, knowingly to tell a falsehood. This 
friend of mine, who has long ago left this world for a better, related 
to me the following story: — 

" His business required him to take a journey to Amsterdam, where 
Swedenborg at that time resided ; and having heard and read much of 
this singular man, he formed the intention of visiting him and becom- 



346 STORIES OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

ing better acquainted with him. He therefore called upon him and 
found a very venerable-looking, friendly old man who received him 
politely and requested him to be seated, whereupon the following 
conversation began : — 

'■'Merchant. ' Having been called hither by business, I could not deny 
myself the honor, Sir, of paying my respects to you : your writings 
have caused me to regard you as a very remarkable man.' 
" Swedenborg. ' May I ask you where you are from ? ' 
U M. i I am from Elberfeld, in the Duchy of Berg. Your writings 
contain so much that is beautiful and edifying, that they have made a 
deep impression on me ; but the source from whence you derive them 
is so extraordinary, so strange and uncommon, that you will perhaps 
not take it amiss of a sincere friend of truth if he desire incontestable 
proofs that you really have intercourse with the spiritual world.' 

"$. ' It would be very unreasonable if I took it amiss ; but I think I 
have given sufficient proofs, which cannot be contradicted.' 

"J/. ' Are these the well-known ones, respecting the Queen, the fire 
in Stockholm, and the receipt ? ' 

"S. ' Yes, those are they, and they are true.' 

"M. ' And yet many objections are brought against them. Might I 
venture to propose that you give me a similar proof ? ' 
"S. 'Why not? Most willingly.' 

"M. ' I had formerly a friend who studied Divinity at Duisburg, 
where he fell into consumption, of which he died. I visited this friend 
a short time before his decease ; we conversed together on an import- 
ant topic : could you learn from him what was the subject of our dis- 
course ? ' 

"S. * We will see. What was the name of your friend ? ' 
" The merchant told his name. 
"S. ' How long do you remain here ? ' 
U M. 'About eight or ten days.' 

"S. ' Call upon me again in a few days. I will see if I can find your 
friend.' 

" The merchant took his leave and despatched his business. Some 
days afterwards he went again to Swedenborg, full of expectation. 
The old gentleman met him with a smile and said, — 1 have spoken 
with your friend; the subject of your discourse was the restitution of all 
things.'' He then related to the merchant with the greatest precision 
what he and what his deceased friend had maintained. My friend 
turned pale, for this proof was powerful and invincible. He inquired 
further, — 'How fares it with my friend? Is he in a state of blessed- 
ness?' Swedenborg answered, 'No, he is not yet in heaven; he is 
still in hades, and torments himself continually with the idea of the 
restitution of all things.' This answer caused my friend the greatest 



DEATH OF PETER III. 347 

astonishment. He exclaimed, — 'My God ! what, in the other world ? ' 
Swedenborg replied, — 'Certainly, a man takes with him his favorite 
inclinations and opinions, and it is very difficult to be divested of 
them : we ought therefore to lay them aside here.' My friend took 
his leave of this remarkable man, perfectly convinced, and returned 
back to Elberfeld. . . . That Swedenborg for many years had frequent 
intercourse with the inhabitants of the spiritual world, is not subject to 
any doubt, but is a settled fact." 

Another statement given by Jung- Stilling, as he had it from 
"a certain beloved friend for many years, who is far ad- 
vanced in Christianity," is as follows : — 

"In the year 1762, on the very day when Peter III. of Russia died, 
Swedenborg was present, with me [a God-fearing friend of Stilling's 
friend] at a party in Amsterdam. In the middle of the conversation 
his physiognomy changed, and it was evident that his soul was no 
longer present in him, and that something was taking place with him. 
As soon as he recovered, he was asked what had happened. At first 
he would not speak out; but after being repeatedly urged, he said, 
'Now, at this very hour, the Emperor Peter III. has died in prison,' — 
explaining the nature of his death [strangled by order of the Empress]. 
' Gentlemen, will you please make a note of this day, in order that you 
may compare it with the announcement of his death which will appear 
in the newspapers ? ' The papers soon after announced the death of 
the Emperor, which had taken place on the very same day. . . . 

" Such is the account of my friend ; if any one doubts this state- 
ment, it is a proof that he has no sense of what is called historical 
faith and its grounds ; and that he believes only what he himself hears 
and sees." 

And yet Jung-Stilling himself preferred attributing Sweden- 
borg's communication with the other world to " somnambu- 
lism" and a state of ecstasy in which spirits spoke through 
him, — a notion not at all consistent with the fact that Swe- 
denborg never laid aside his own reason and the control of 
his speech and acts. These illustrations of this open com- 
munication we quote, not as proofs to convince the incredu- 
lous, — no second-hand testimony can do that, — but as a part 
of Swedenborg's daily life which cannot fairly be omitted, 
and which indeed is necessary to complete our understand- 
ing of his being present in both worlds at once. As such 



348 STORIES OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. 

they serve as confirmation to those who recognize the spirit- 
ual truths which this communication was given to reveal. 

Of the "three proofs" to which Jung-Stilling referred, we 
have already seen the story of Queen Ulrica and her brother. 
The second is of the fire in Stockholm known to Swedenborg 
at Gottenburg ; and the third is of a mislaid receipt. Of these 
occurrences Swedenborg himself says, in a letter to Venator, 
minister of the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, — 

"These must by no means be regarded as miracles; for 
they are simply testimonies that I have been introduced by 
the Lord into the spiritual world and have intercourse and 
converse there with angels and spirits, — in order that the 
Church, which has hitherto remained in ignorance concerning 
that world, may know that heaven and hell really exist, and 
that man lives after death a man as before ; and that thus, 
no more doubts may flow into his mind in respect to his 
immortality." 

The occurrence of the Stockholm fire is variously related. 
Immanuel Kant's account, gathered by him with great care 
for a correspondent, seems most complete and trustworthy, 
with R. L. Tafel's correction of the date. Says Kant, — 

"The following occurrence appears to me to have the greatest 
weight of proof, and to place the assertion respecting Swedenborg's 
extraordinary gift beyond all possibility of doubt : — 

"In the year 1759, towards the end of July, on Saturday at four 
o'clock P. M., Swedenborg arrived at Gottenburg from England, when 
Mr. William Castel invited him to his house, together with a party of 
fifteen persons. About six o'clock Swedenborg went out, and returned 
to the company quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dangerous 
fire had just broken out in Stockholm, in the Sodermalm (Gotten- 
burg is about three hundred miles from Stockholm), and that it was 
spreading very fast. He was restless and went out often. He said 
that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was already in 
ashes, and that his own was in danger. At eight o'clock, after he had 
been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, 'Thank God ! the fire is extin- 
guished, the third door from my house.' The news occasioned great 
commotion throughout the whole city, but particularly amongst the 
company in which he was. It was announced to the governor the 
same evening. On Sunday morning Swedenborg was summoned to 



THE LOST RECEIPT. 349 

the governor, who questioned him concerning the disaster. Svveden- 
borg described the fire precisely, — how it had begun, and in what man- 
ner it had ceased, and how it had continued. On the same day the news 
spread through the city, and, as the governor had thought it worthy 
of attention, the consternation was considerably increased, because 
many were in trouble on account of their friends and property which 
might have been involved in the disaster. On Monday evening a mes- 
senger arrived at Gottenburg, who was despatched by the Board of 
Trade during the time of the fire. In the letters brought by him the 
fire was described precisely in the manner stated by Swedenborg. On 
Tuesday morning the royal courier arrived at the governor's with the 
melancholy intelligence of the fire, of the loss which it had occasioned, 
and of the houses it had damaged and ruined, not in the least differing 
from that which Swedenborg had given at the very time when it hap- 
pened ; for the fire was extinguished at eight o'clock." 

From many different accounts of the lost receipt, agreeing 
in substance, we select again that of Kant, confirmed as it is 
in all essential particulars by the secretary of the legation and 
executor of the estate : — 

"Madame Marteville, the widow of the Dutch Ambassador in Stock- 
holm, some time after the death of her husband, was called upon by 
Croon, a goldsmith, to pay for a silver service which her husband had 
purchased from him. The widow was convinced that her late husband 
had been much too precise and orderly not to have paid this debt, yet 
she was unable to find the receipt. In her sorrow, and because the 
amount was considerable, she requested Mr. Swedenborg to call at her 
house. After apologizing to him for troubling him, she said that if, 
as all people say, he possessed the extraordinary gift of conversing 
with the souls of the departed, he would perhaps have the kindness 
to ask her husband how it was about the silver service. Swedenborg 
did not at all object to comply with her request. Three days after- 
wards the said lady had company at her house for coffee. Sweden- 
borg called, and in his cool way informed her that he had conversed 
with her husband. The debt had been paid seven months before his 
decease, and the receipt was in a bureau in the room upstairs. The 
lady replied that the bureau had been quite cleared out, and that the 
receipt was not found among all the papers. Swedenborg said that 
her husband had described to him how, after pulling out the left-hand 
drawer, a board would appear which required to be drawn out, when a 
secret compartment would be disclosed, containing his private Dutch 
correspondence, as well as the receipt. Upon hearing this description 
the whole company rose and accompanied the lady into the room up- 



350 DR. BEYER. 

stairs. The bureau was opened ; they did as they were directed ; the 
compartment was found, of which no one had known before ; and to 
the great astonishment of all, the papers were discovered there in 
accordance with his description." 

This event, as well as that of the Queen, seems to have 
occurred in the year 1761, — that is, about the time when 
Swedenborg was becoming known as the writer of his theo- 
logical works. 

If there were but one name to be handed down with 
Swedenborg's in connection with his work, it should be that 
of Gabriel Andersson Beyer, doctor and professor of theology 
at Gottenburg. Says Mr. Wenngren of that city, — 

"About the year 1766 Swedenborg went to Gottenburg, intending to 
embark for England : when he arrived there, he took his passage in a 
vessel which was to sail in a few days. During his stay at Gotten- 
burg Dr. Beyer accidentally met him in company, and entertaining 
from report the same sentiments with many others in that country, 
with respect to his being a madman on account of his assertion that 
he had communication with the spiritual world, he was surprised when 
he observed that Swedenborg spoke very sensibly, without discovering 
any marks of that infirmity of which he was suspected ; he therefore 
invited Swedenborg to dine with him the day following, in company 
with Dr. Rosen. After dinner Dr. Beyer expressed a desire, in the 
presence of Dr. Rosen, to hear from himself a full account of his doc- 
trines; upon which Swedenborg, animated by the request^§poke so 
clearly and in so wonderful a manner on the subject that the Doctor 
and his friend were quite astonished. They did not interrupt him; 
but when the discourse was ended, Dr. Beyer requested Swedenborg 
to meet him the next day at Mr. Wenngren's and to bring with him 
a paper containing the substance of his discourse, that he might 
consider it more attentively. Swedenborg came the day following, 
according to his promise, and taking the paper out of his pocket in 
the presence of the other two gentlemen, he trembled and appeared 
much affected, the tears flowing down his cheeks ; when, presenting 
the paper to Dr. Beyer, 'Sir,' said he, 'from this day the Lord has in- 
troduced you into the society of angels, and you are now surrounded 
by them.' They were all greatly affected. He then took his leave, 
and the next day embarked for England. 

"The Doctor immediately sent for his writings, and to arrange the 
subjects more distinctly in his mind began the Index [to Swedenborg's 
Theological Works] which as he prepared he sent sheet by sheet to 



THE EPISTLES. 35 I 

Amsterdam to be printed. He was thirteen years in completing that 
work, and on the day he sent off the last sheet corrected, he became 
ill, took to his bed, and in a few days it pleased the Lord to call him 
to Himself, to bestow on him the reward of his useful labors." 

From the time of Dr. Beyer's introduction to Sweden- 
borg he devoted all his leisure to the study and diffusion of 
his teachings. He taught them from his professor's chair, 
preached them from the pulpit, and published them in a 
Catechism and a Course of Philosophy. What opposition he 
thus stirred up, we shall see in his correspondence with Swe- 
denborg. He is described as "a man of the purest virtue 
and of the most amiable character, — pious, simple-minded, 
humble, and frank ; gentle and conciliatory with others, strict 
and severe towards himself, faithful to his convictions, perse- 
vering in his undertakings, and filled with the warmest sym- 
pathies for everything that appeared to him beautiful, true, 
good, and sacred." 

We suspect that the interview above described took place 
in the summer of 1765, when Swedenborg was on his way 
to Amsterdam for the purpose of printing The Apocalypse 
Revealed. For on the 1st of October in that year he sends 
a note to Dr. Beyer with two copies of the beginning of this 
work, as far as then printed. In the next March Dr. Beyer 
writes, thanking him for the sheets he had sent, expressing 
the joy he often experiences and his delight in the way " the 
glorious truths are beginning to shine " before him. Never- 
theless he is somewhat troubled that the Epistles of the 
Apostles are not spoken of as the Word of God. He begs 
for light on this point, and also to see the subject of marriage 
fully treated, and asks for certain volumes of the Arcana 
Cozlestia he could not obtain. 

On the 8th of April Swedenborg sends him eight copies of 
The Apocalypse Revealed, now completed, — one for himself, 
the rest for distribution, — and informs him that he is then 
going to England, "where some noise is probably being 
made on account of the bishops of England being somewhat 
severely treated in the Memorable Relations ; yet necessity 



352 DR. BEYER. 

required it." On the 15th of April he answers Dr. Beyer's 
question about the Epistles : — 

"In respect to the writings of the Apostles and Paul, I 
have not quoted them in the Arcana Ccelestia, because they 
are doctrinal writings, and consequently are not written in 
the style of the Word, like those of the Prophets, of David, 
of the Evangelists, and the Book of Revelation. The style 
of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, where- 
fore it is effective of immediate communication with heaven ; 
but in doctrinal writings there is- a different style, which has 
indeed communication with heaven, but mediately. They 
were written thus by the Apostles, that the new Christian 
Church might be commenced through them ; wherefore mat- 
ters of doctrine could not be written in the style of the Word, 
but they had to be expressed in such a manner as to be un- 
derstood more clearly and intimately. The writings of the 
Apostles are, nevertheless, good books of the Church, insist- 
ing upon the doctrine of charity and its faith as strongly as 
the Lord Himself has done in the Gospels and the Book of 
Revelation." 

In August he writes from London : — 

"Reverend Doctor, — I send you herewith a complete set 
of the Arcana Ccelestia, and likewise the last volume of those 
which were still wanting in yours ; they are however all un- 
bound. I thought at first of bringing them to you myself ; 
but I changed my mind about travelling to Gottenburg, as an 
opportunity offered of going to Stockholm directly, which will 
be next week. Should any one be able to make use of my 
travelling carriage on his way to Stockholm, or should any 
one wish to buy it, it may be left to them." 

This was the passage he made in one week with Captain 
Dixon. Swedenborg thus speaks of it in his next letter, 
from Stockholm, Sept. 25, 1766 : — 

" I arrived here as early as September 8. The trip from 
England was made in eight days ; a favorable wind increasing 
to a perfect storm carried the ship along in this style. 



THE NEW CHURCH. 353 

"I wish much blessing to the intended 'Collection of Ser- 
mons,' and I send you herewith my subscription for it. I 
presume you will use all necessary precaution in this work, 
because the time has not yet arrived when the essentials of 
the New Church can be received in this manner. It is diffi- 
cult to convince the clergy, who have been confirmed in their 
dogmas at the universities ; for all confirmations in matters 
of theology are, as it were, glued fast in the brain and can 
with difficulty be removed, and as long as they are there, 
genuine truths can have no place. Besides, the New Heaven 
of Christians out of which the New Jerusalem will descend 
from the Lord (Rev. xxi. 1, 2), is not yet fully established." 

In February, 1767, Swedenborg writes to Beyer, — 

" Several questions have been propounded to me by your 
friend, to which you will please receive the following as an 
answer : — 

"I. My opinion concerning the writings of Bohme and 

L . I have never read either ; I was forbidden to read 

writers on dogmatic and systematic theology before heaven 
was opened to me, because unfounded opinions and inven- 
tions might thereby have easily insinuated themselves, which 
afterwards could only have been removed with difficulty; 
wherefore, when heaven was opened to me I had first to 
learn the Hebrew language, as well as the correspondences 
according to which the whole Bible is composed, which led 
me to read the Word of God over many times ; and as God's 
Word is the source whence all theology must be derived, I 
was enabled thereby to receive instruction from the Lord, 
who is the Word." 

" II. Query : How soon a New Church may be expected. 
Answer : the Lord is preparing at this time a New Heaven of 
those who believe in Him, acknowledge Him as the true God 
of heaven and earth, and look to Him in their lives, — which 
means to shun evil and do good ; for from that heaven the 
New Jerusalem is to come down (Rev. xxi. 2). I daily see 
spirits and angels, from ten to twenty thousand, descending 

23 



354 DR - BEYER. 

and ascending, and being set in order. By degrees, as that 
heaven is being formed, the New Church likewise begins 
and increases. The universities in Christendom are now first 
being instructed, whence will come new ministers ; for the 
New Heaven has no influence over the old [clergy], who 
deem themselves too learned in the doctrine of justification 
by faith alone." 

"As here [in Stockholm] they now begin to think more 
of charity than before, asserting that faith and charity cannot 
be separated, therefore faith alone begins also to be called 
Moravian faith." 

It is noteworthy that Swedenborg was looking to the Chris- 
tian universities for the reception and propagation of the 
faith of the New Heaven and New Church. On this account 
we find him distributing his works among these universities 
and libraries with a free hand, till the editions were exhausted. 
Witness the following note to the Secretary of State in Stock- 
holm : — 

"I have at last finished the explanation of the Book of 
Revelation and circulated it in all the universities in Holland, 
Germany, France, and England, and am going to send sev- 
enty copies to Stockholm, of which your honor will please 
take five and give them to the following senators, — Senator 
Hopken, Senator Scheffer, likewise to Nordencrantz, the 
Councillor of Commerce, and Bishops Menander and Sere- 
nius ; the other five you will please to distribute among your 
friends. The remaining sixty copies I desire to be kept safe 
until my return home. I intend to distribute them among 
the academies and libraries of Sweden, and among clergymen 
who are qualified for a more than ordinary position. Four I 
intend to present to the Court, and the remainder to univer- 
sities and theological seminaries in foreign parts." 

Doubtless for the most part these books were soon shelved, 
if not consigned to still greater obscurity. Yet very many 
inquiring men must have looked into them at one time and 
another ; and the amount of direct effect they have had, 



THE NEW CHURCH. 



355 



through these very universities, in bringing about the more 
rational and Scriptural views on doctrinal points that now so 
widely prevail, is incalculable. 

In March, 1769, Swedenborg writes again to Dr. Beyer, — 

"I had the pleasure of receiving yours of Nov. 23, 1768. 
The reason I did not answer it sooner was that I postponed 
until a little work was published, entitled A Brief Exposition 
of the Doctrine of the New Church signified by the New 
Jerusalem i?i the Book of Revelation, in which work are fully 
shown the errors of the hitherto received doctrine of justifi- 
cation by faith alone, and the imputation of the righteous- 
ness or merit of Christ. This treatise was sent by me to all 
the clergy in Holland, and will come into the hands of the 
most eminent in Germany. I have been informed that they 
have attentively perused it, and that some have already dis- 
covered the truth, while others do not know which way to 
turn ; for what is written therein is sufficient to convince any 
one that the above-mentioned doctrine is the cause of our 
having at the present day no theology in Christendom." 

" Here [in Amsterdam] they frequently inquire of me re- 
specting the New Church, when it will come. To which I 
answer, — By degrees, in proportion as the doctrine of justi- 
fication and imputation is extirpated : which perhaps will be 
brought about by this work. It is known that the Christian 
Church did not take its rise immediately after the ascension 
of Christ, but increased gradually, which is also meant by 
these words in the Revelation, — 'And the woman flew into 
the desert, into her place, where she is nourished for a 
time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent' 
(xii. 14). The serpent or dragon is that doctrine." 

In November, 1769, in answer to Dr. Beyer's request for 
some account of his early life, Swedenborg says, — 

"From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly en- 
gaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual expe- 
riences of men ; and some times I revealed things at which 
my father and mother wondered, saying that an angel must 



356 OPPOSITION BY THE CLERGY. 

be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year 
I used to delight in conversing with clergymen about faith, 
saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which 
imparts life is love to the neighbor ; also that God gives faith 
to every one, but that those only receive it who practise that 
love. I knew of no other faith, at that time, than that God 
is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He imparts un- 
derstanding and a good disposition to men, and many other 
things that follow thence. I knew nothing then of that 
learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the 
righteousness of His Son to whomsoever, and whenever, He 
chooses, even to those who have not repented and have 
not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith, 
it would have been then, as it is now, above my compre- 
hension. 

For a while Dr. Beyer and his friend Dr. Ros6n, who also 
was a professor at Gottenburg, studied Swedenborg's writ- 
ings and adopted his doctrines in their teachings without 
molestation. But in time the more bigoted theologians per- 
ceived that their own dogmas on the tri-personality and on 
justification by faith alone were being undermined ; they 
became alarmed, and attempted through the Consistory at 
Gottenburg to obtain an injunction on the propagation of 
Swedenborg's doctrines. Dr. Beyer and Dr. Ros£n pro- 
tested against any such arbitrary action, when no suitable 
investigation had been held. The matter was referred to 
the House of the Clergy, and in this House to the Privy 
Council. Swedenborg's own view of the matter appears 
clearly in the following letter to Dr. Beyer, dated Stock- 
holm, April 12, 1770 : — 

" Reverend Doctor and Lector, — Only two days ago I re- 
ceived your favor of the 21st of March last, and on reading 
it through I was surprised at the reports, which are said to 
have reached Gottenburg from Stockholm, to the effect that 
you and Dr. Rosen are to be deposed, deprived of office, 
and banished from the country, a report to which I certainly 



SWEDENBORG'S DEFENCE. 357 

can give no credence ; for it contradicts my reason in the 
highest degree to believe that a person may be deprived of 
office and banished from the country on the mere allegation 
of his being heretical, without the principal point of accusa- 
tion against him being investigated. In the printed minutes 
I cannot find that they have taken a single step in regard to 
the question itself, but that they have simply busied them- 
selves in making attacks in abusive and unseemly language, 
when yet the real point at issue is this, whether it is allowable 
to approach immediately our Redeemer and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, or whether we must go a circuitous way, namely, to 
God the Father, that He may impute to us the merit and 
righteousness of His Son, and send the Holy Spirit. But that 
we may go the other, which is the direct way, namely, to our 
Saviour, Jesus Christ, is in accordance both with the Augs- 
burg Confession and the Formula Concordia, and also with 
our own prayers and hymns; and it entirely agrees with 
God's Word. 

" In the Augsburg Confession are the following words : 
'For the Scripture sets before us Christ alone as the Me- 
diator, the Propitiator, the High Priest, and the Intercessor ; 
He is to be invoked or addressed ; and He has promised 
that He will hear our prayers ; and the Sacred Scripture very 
greatly approves of this worship, namely, that He should be 
invoked in all afflictions ' ( 1 John ii. 1 ) . 

" In the Formula Concordice are these words : ' We have 
a command that we should call upon Christ, according to 
this saying, Come unto Me all ye that labor, etc., which is 
certainly addressed to us ; and Isaiah says, chap. xi. 10, 
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall 
stand for an ensign of the people : on Him shall the na- 
tions call. And in Psalm xlv. 12, The rich among the 
people shall entreat Thy countenance. And in Psalm lxxii. 
11, And all kings of the earth shall fall down before Him. 
And in another verse, 15, They shall pray before Him con- 
tinually. And in John v. 23, Christ says, All shall honor 



358 opposition. 

the Son, even as they honor the Father. See also Paul in 
i Thess. ii.' These are the identical words quoted from the 
work. 

" In our hymn-book are prayers and hymns addressed to 
Jesus Christ alone, as Hymn 266, of which I will quote only 
what follows : — 

Lo ! Jesus is my might ; 
He is my heart's delight. 

Jesus, hear my voice ! 

If I of Christ make sure, 

1 '11 ever feel secure, 

And freed from all my sins. 

As Jesus is my shield, 
I '11 ne'er to Satan yield 
Tho' he against me rage. 

My cares and all my woe 
On Him alone I '11 throw, 
Who is my strength and guard. 

By day and night I '11 rest 
All safe on Jesus' breast, 
In whom alone I trust. 

" Besides all this, two of my letters which have been in- 
serted and printed in the Gottenburg Minutes, contain 
numerous proofs, adduced from the whole of the Formula 
Concordia, that our Saviour, even as to His Humanity, is 
God ; which Luther and the Formula Concordia corroborate 
with all their power, and which is also in agreement with the 
entire Word of God. In proof of this I refer you only to 
Col. ii. 9 ; 1 John v. 20, 21. More to the same purport has 
been adduced from one of my works, an extract from which 
may be found in the printed Minutes of the Gottenburg Con- 
sistory. This doctrine they there call ' Swedenborgianism ' ; 
but for my part I call it Genuine Christianity." 

At different stages of the controversy, Svvedenborg sent 
several vigorous communications to the Consistory, Privy 



CONFISCATION OF BOOKS. 



359 



Council, and King, and, as we have seen in his letter to Gen- 
eral Tuxen, was told by the King that his opponents would 
not make any reply to the Royal summons. But the King, 
it would appear, had underrated the hostility of these defend- 
ers of the faith-alone doctrine, and was himself compelled to 
make some concessions in order to maintain his own ortho- 
doxy. By a Royal Resolution of April 26, 1770, the Con- 
sistory of Gottenburg was authorized to summon before it 
Doctors Beyer and Ros^n, to inform them of the royal dis- 
pleasure, and to seek to convince them of their errors. By 
a second Resolution of the same date orders were given for 
seeking out and confiscating the theological works of Assessor 
Swedenborg, and to enforce the Royal Resolution of 1735 
prohibiting the delivery of books imported from abroad, be- 
fore permission should be granted by the executive of the 
nearest Consistory. These Resolutions were a great surprise 
to Swedenborg. He knew how the persecution had arisen, 
but underestimated its strength. To General Tuxen he wrote 
on the first of May, before learning of the Resolutions, — 

"The affair took its rise at Gottenburg, principally from 
the Dean. The deputies of that place having been in- 
structed to complain of me and of Dr. Beyer to the Diet, 
they pushed matters as far as they could, but would never 
have effected anything had not Bishop Filenius, who was 
then the Speaker in the House of the Clergy, taken up the 
matter, and by cunning and craft gained over a crowd in 
the House. This the Bishop did at first from secret dislike, 
and afterwards from malice. The result was that a commit- 
tee was appointed in the House of the Clergy on the Swe- 
denborgian cause. Whilst they deliberated on this subject I 
did not hear a word of it, as all was carried on with secrecy ; 
yet the committee, which consisted of bishops and profes- 
sors, found the matter quite different from what Bishop File- 
nius had represented: they concluded in my favor, and 
expressed themselves in the House with respect to myself 
very handsomely and reasonably. Bishop Filenius, never- 



36O OPPOSITION. 

theless, succeeded in having a memorial submitted to his 
Royal Majesty and the Privy Council to this effect, that 
the Chancellor of Justice should endeavor to quell the dis- 
orders which had arisen at Gottenburg; whereupon the 
Chancellor of Justice sent a letter to the Consistories that 
they should express themselves in regard to this matter ; and 
after their opinions had been received, the affair occupied 
the Privy Council for two days ; and not until then did I 
come forward with the enclosed letter which was read be- 
fore the Council. The conclusion is contained in a letter 
addressed by the Chancellor of Justice to the Consistory of 
Gottenburg, which is not against me, and the particulars of 
which I shall relate to you some other time. Of all this I 
knew nothing while it was being discussed ; but, enjoying 
the calm in my chamber, I allowed the storm to rage as 
much as it pleased outside : for it had been resolved in the 
Diet, as well as in the Privy Council, that my person should 
not be touched." 

On learning the Resolutions issued a few days before, 
Swedenborg on the 10th of May addressed the following 
letter to the King : — 

"Most powerful and most gracious King, — I feel com- 
pelled at this juncture to have recourse to your Majesty's 
protection ; for I have been treated as no one has ever been 
treated before in Sweden since the introduction of Christ- 
ianity, and still less since the establishment of freedom here. 
I will first give you a brief account of things as they have 
happened. Upon my return from abroad the last time, I 
was informed that Bishop Filenius had confiscated my work 
De Amore Conjugiali, which had appeared in Holland and 
been sent to Norrkoping. 1 I therefore immediately inquired 

1 Robsahm tells us in his memoirs that " Swedenborg had ordered for the 
Diet in Norrkoping, 1769, a small box of his works from England, which in ac- 
cordance with the regulations of customs was detained in the custom house, on 
account of their containing foreign or heterodox thoughts on religion. Swe- 
denborg, therefore, asked a clergyman [Bishop Filenius], one of his influential 
relatives, to get this box released for him, because he desired to distribute 



LETTER TO THE KING. 36 1 

of some bishops whether this had been authorized by the 
House of the Clergy ; they answered that they were aware 
of the confiscation, but that no general action had been 
taken, and that not a word about it had been entered on the 
minutes. Immediately afterwards the clergy from Gottenburg 
made a noise in their House about my books, and pushed 
matters so far that the House appointed a committee on 
' Swedenborgianism,' which consisted of bishops and profes- 
sors. This committee sat for several months, and at last 
reported handsomely and reasonably on that subject, and 
thereby suppressed completely the disturbance which had 
been made ; but to put an end to it still more effectually, it 
was resolved that a humble memorial should be addressed 
to your Royal Majesty, requesting that the Chancellor of 
Justice should inquire about the disturbances which had 
arisen in Gottenburg. When the Bishop and the Dean of 
that place, who are the torch and trumpet in this affair, dis- 
covered that they made no progress in the reverend House of 
the Clergy, they, to stir up and kindle the name anew, com- 
menced a publication of twenty sheets or more about ' Swe- 
denborgianism,' which is filled with invectives ; and after this 
had been sent to Stockholm, the matter was taken up and 
settled by your Majesty in the Privy Council, in consequence 
of which the Chancellor of Justice despatched to the Consis- 
tory of Gottenburg an official letter, wherein I have reason 
to think he assented to the opinion expressed by the Con- 
sistory. 

" I received no more intimation than a child in the cradle 
of all that took place, of the committee in the reverend House 

the books among the members of the various Houses of the Diet. This man 
assured Swedenborg that he would, and on leaving embraced and kissed him ; 
but when he went up to the House, it was he who insisted most strongly that 
the books should not be released." Oddly enough some years later a book- 
collector found a grocer using these same books, De Amore Conjugiali. for 
wrapping paper, and was able to save a considerable number of copies entire. 
This reminds us of Bishop Swedberg's plaintive expectation that his own cart- 
loads of printed sheets prohibited by the hostile censors, would be used after 
his death " by woman-kind to wrap cakes and pies." 



362 



OPPOSITION. 



of the Clergy, of the memorial they submitted to your Royal 
Majesty, of the publication in Gottenburg on ' Swedenborg- 
ianism,' of the Resolution which was passed by your Royal 
Majesty in the Privy Council, and of the letter embodying it 
which was despatched to the Consistory in Gottenburg. Of 
all this, from beginning to end, I received not the least inti- 
mation : all was done without my receiving a hearing, when 
yet the whole matter was about 'Svvedenborgianism ;' and the 
papers printed in Gottenburg are filled with coarse and rep- 
rehensible language without touching materially the subject of 
' Swedenborgianism,' which is the worship of the Lord our 
Saviour. Of these printed papers I had no other knowledge 
than what I received from a general commissary of war 
[Tuxen] at Elsinore, and afterwards from a friend here in 
Stockholm who lent them to me for a day. Wherefore I still 
insist that everything that has taken place since my return 
home has from beginning to end been done without giving 
me a hearing. 

"From a rumor which has spread here in town I have 
learned that from the office of the Chancellor of Justice 
a communication has been made to the Consistory of Gotten- 
burg, to the effect that my books have been entirely forbidden 
to be imported into this country, and further that the same 
office has stigmatized my revelations as untrue and false. In 
reply to this I humbly beg to make the following statement : 
That our Saviour visibly revealed Himself before me, and 
commanded me to do what I have done, and what I have 
still to do ; and that thereupon He permitted me to have 
intercourse with angels and spirits I have declared before 
the whole of Christendom, as well in England, Holland, Ger- 
many, and Denmark, as in France and Spain, and also on 
various occasions in this country before their Royal Majesties, 
and especially when I enjoyed the grace to eat at their table, 
in the presence of the whole royal family, and also of five 
senators and others ; at which time my mission constituted 
the sole topic of conversation. Subsequently, also, I have 



LETTER TO THE KING. 363 

revealed this before many senators ; and among these Count 
Tessin, Count Bonde, and Count Hopken have found it in 
truth to be so : and Count Hopken, a gentleman of enlight- 
ened understanding, still continues to believe so, without 
mentioning many others, as well at home as abroad, among 
whom are both kings and princes. All this, however, the 
office of the Chancellor of Justice, if the rumor is correctly 
stated, declares to be false ; when yet it is the truth. Should 
they reply that the thing is inconceivable to them, I have 
nothing to gainsay, since I am unable to put the state of my 
sight and speech into their heads, in order to convince them ; 
nor am I able to cause angels and spirits to converse with 
them ; nor do miracles happen now : but their very reason 
will enable them to see this, when they thoughtfully read my 
writings, wherein much may be found which has never before 
been discovered, and which cannot be discovered except by 
real vision and intercourse with those who are in the spiritual 
world. In order that reason may see and acknowledge this, 
I beg that one of your Excellencies may peruse what has 
been said on this subject in my book, De Amore Conjugiali, 
in a Memorable Relation on pp. 314-316 : his Excellency 
Count Ekeblad and his Excellency Count Bjelke possess the 
book. If any doubt should still remain, I am ready to testify 
with the most solemn oath that may be prescribed to me that 
this is the whole truth and a reality, without the least fallacy. 
That our Saviour permits me to experience this is not on my 
own account, but for the sake of a sublime interest which con- 
cerns the eternal welfare of all Christians. Since such is the 
real state of things, it is wrong to declare it to be untruth and 
falsity ; although it may be pronounced to be something that 
cannot be comprehended. 

"If now the rumor which has been spread is correct, — 
namely, that such things are contained in the letter which 
was sent from the office of the Chancellor of Justice to the 
Consistory of Gottenburg, — it follows hence that my books 
are declared to be heretical, and that I am declared to speak 



364 OPPOSITION. 

untruths and falsehoods in matters of revelation ; and further, 
that, from beginning to end, all this has been determined 
upon without giving me a hearing. What else results from 
this, but that, in agreement with the Resolution, any severe 
treatment may be brought forward by the Consistory of 
Gottenburg and Bishop Filenius, and sentence may be pro- 
nounced upon me, without my being heard in the affair at 
all ; for of what use is a declaration or a defence after the 
sentence has been pronounced? 

"This is the reason why, as I said above, 'I am compelled 
to have recourse to your Majesty, since I have been treated 
as no one has ever been treated before in Sweden since the 
introduction of Christianity, and still less since the establish- 
ment of freedom,' by being treated as I have been, without a 
hearing having been granted me. 

"As this, however, concerns not only my writings, but 
as a natural consequence my person also, I make a humble 
request that the memorial should be communicated to me 
which was addressed to your Royal Majesty in this matter by 
the House of the Clergy, likewise the minutes of the Privy 
Council, and the letter which was despatched from the office 
of the Chancellor of Justice to the Consistory of Gottenburg, 
in order that I may at once be heard, and may show forth 
the whole of my treatment before the public at large. 

" In respect to Doctors Beyer and Ros6n of Gottenburg, 
I have given them no other advice than that they should 
approach our Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whom all power has 
been given in heaven and on earth (Matt, xxviii. 18), and 
should strive after their salvation ; and as far as I have been 
able to learn they have affirmed and insisted upon that one 
point, which is also in conformity with the Augsburg Confes- 
sion, the Formula Concordia, and the whole Word of God ; 
nevertheless for this acknowledgment alone they have be- 
come to a certain extent martyrs, at least so far as regards the 
cruel persecutions of the Bishop and the Dean of that town. 
The same expression also I apply to my books, which I regard 



TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 365 

as my own self, when, nevertheless, all that the Dean of Got- 
tenburg has poured out against them consists of sheer invec- 
tives, which do not contain a particle of truth. 

"Your Royal Majesty's most humble and most dutiful 
servant and subject, 

" Emanuel Swedenborg." 

No answer was received to this letter ; perhaps none was 
expected. The matter came up again before the Privy 
Council, and was deferred. In July Swedenborg went to 
Amsterdam to publish The True Christian Religion, after 
sending copies of his letter to the King, to the Chancellor of 
Justice, and to the three Swedish Universities. On the part of 
his opponents it was held that the Privy Council was the head 
ruler in religious matters. Swedenborg contended that the 
Council was but the vicar of the Houses of the Diet, and that 
they again were but the vicar of the Lord, the real Head of 
the Church. As the persecution of Doctors Beyer and Ros£n 
still continued, he wrote to Dr. Beyer in April, 1771, — 

" I wonder that they keep stirring up this affair at Gotten- 
burg ; I will complain of them at the next Diet, when I send 
over my Universa Theologia Novi Coeli et Novcz Ecclesice 
('The True Christian Religion'), which will leave the press 
towards the close of the month of June. I will send two 
copies of this work to each House, and request them to ap- 
point for its consideration a general committee from all the 
Houses, in order to put an end to the affair in this way. I 
am certain of this, that, after the appearance of the book 
referred to, the Lord our Saviour will operate both mediately 
and immediately towards the establishment throughout the 
whole of Christendom of a New Church based on this ' The- 
ology.' The New Heaven, out of which the New Jerusalem 
will descend, will very soon be completed." 

In The True Christian Religion thus announced, Swe- 
denborg printed an account of a discussion in a council of 
the clergy in the world of spirits, on their former tenets. 



366 opposition. 

Near the conclusion of the discussion, in which Svvedenborg 
himself had taken an active part, one arose and declared that 
he himself was intimately associated with a man still in the 
world, of eminent station, from whom he had gained the idea 
that Swedenborg's views partook of Mahometanism. The 
eminent man, he said, lived at Gottenburg. An uproar arose 
in the assembly, and Swedenborg denounced the charges 
of materialism and Mahometanism, as inventions to deter 
men from the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. He then re- 
quested the speaker to desire his friend to read what is said 
in the Apocalypse, iii. 18 ; and also ii. 16. (T. C. R. 137.) 
Again Swedenborg writes to Dr. Beyer, July 2, — 
" Reverend Doctor, — Captain Sjb'berg informed me that he 
was commissioned by Mr. Hammarberg to purchase some 
sets of the works written by me, namely, four of each, and 
among them also the last book which appeared a few days 
ago. On account of the strict prohibition the captain did 
not dare to purchase more than one copy of each ; besides 
this I presented him with a copy of the last work published. 
Perhaps Mr. Hammarberg may know of some way by which 
he could receive another copy if it were sent afterwards. In 
a few days I will send to Stockholm by the skipper Casper 
Nyberg two copies of the work just published, entitled Vera 
Religio Christiana; one for Bishop Menander and the other 
for Bishop Serenius ; and among other things I will give 
them to understand that, as soon as the Diet is properly 
organized, I shall tender a formal complaint of the course 
of proceeding of the Privy Council in the Gottenburg mat- 
ter, in respect to you and myself; from which I hope a 
favorable result. . . . With my kindest regards to Dr. Ros£n 
I remain, with all friendship and affection, 

"Your most obedient servant and friend, 

"Emanuel Swedenborg." 

Swedenborg did not fulfil his intention of repairing to 
Sweden and appealing to the Diet of 1772, perhaps on ac- 



OETINGER. 



367 



count of the infirmities that grew upon him, but accepted 
the invitation of his English friends and spent his few re- 
maining months in London, though not at their expense. 

Dr. Beyer and Dr. Rosen maintained their position ably 
and without wavering. The result was that they were allowed 
to retain their offices at Gottenburg, but were prohibited from 
teaching theological matters, because of their "erroneous 
doctrinal opinions." 

Meanwhile the distinguished and enlightened, but some- 
what one-sided prelate, Oetinger, 1 who was in a measure 
friendly to Swedenborg, was bringing him into notice and 
calling down denunciation on the heads of both. Singularly 
Oetinger was deeply affected by Swedenborg's account of 
things heard and seen in the spiritual world, and entertained 
no doubt of their reality. He translated and published with 
his own writings the intermediate chapters of the Arcana 
Ccehstia. But he could not accept the explanations of Scrip- 
ture, because he was unwilling to give up his old belief in the 
literal, material fulfilment of the prophecies. His books that 
contained portions of Swedenborg's were condemned and 
confiscated by the clerical authorities, and again and again 
with determined will he petitioned for their release, though 
without success. His vigorous spirit well appears in the 
preface to his translation from the "Arcana" : — 

" I herewith present to the examination of the reader something 
rare, which God has given us to know in the present times. It is 

1 Kurtz calls Oetinger " the magus of the south," " deeply learned in the 
Scriptures," " the first representative of a theology of the future, which, it is 
true, might need thorough purifying and close sifting, but yet might be adapted 
to represent, in its fundamental idea, the basis for the true reconciliation of 
Idealism and Realism." Dorner says Oetinger's "view of heaven, as a world 
of realities, could not suffer him to conceive of God as merely an infinite, 
unfathomable Being, all will and reason. It obliged him to regard Him as the 
living centre, who,while He governs the universe, is at the same time enthroned 
in a glory and happiness to which He is, through Christ, raising the human 
race. Hence he could not accommodate himself to the thought that the rela- 
tion of God to the world was that of a dead law, nor confine His intercourse 
with man to the judicial functions of commanding, acquitting, and condemn- 
ing." — History of Protestant Theology, 234. 



368 opposition. 

profitable to compare unusual things with those to which we are accus- 
tomed ; but in doing so it is necessary sometimes to keep back our 
judgment, until we are able to take in the whole matter. The infidelity 
which is rife now in the world has induced God to make use of a Cele- 
brated philosopher in order to communicate to us heavenly informa- 
tion. Mathematics have checked the imagination of this philosopher; 
wherefore it will not do to say that he reports mere imaginations. 
Experimental facts are not imaginations. These experiences are due 
to the influx of heavenly intelligences by the command of the Lord. 
Should any one say, ' We have Moses and the Prophets/ he may 
read what follows or not, just as he pleases. Still, a person anxious to 
improve himself ought not to forego any opportunity by which he may 
become acquainted with new light offered to him by truth. Sweden- 
borg, a distinguished Assessor of the College of Mines in Sweden, 
wrote a large work in folio, which is most costly [Opera Philosophical 
This I call Earthly Philosophy in contradistinction to the following, 
which is of a heavenly origin, and which he has published in thirteen 
works that are still more valuable. Should you find therein proposi- 
tions which appear objectionable, remember the twelve Ephesians in 
the Acts, xix. 21, who ' had not so much as heard whether there be any 
Holy Ghost,' and nevertheless were thought worthy at once to receive 
the Holy Spirit, notwithstanding they were ignorant of one of the chief 
grounds of faith, and opposed to the Scripture. Does not Swedenborg 
place the Scripture higher than any one else ? and does he not wish to 
have all experiences judged thereby ? Is not all he says well connec- 
ted ? And does he not appeal to many witnesses ? " 

Referring to the first volume of the same philosophical 
work, in a letter of defence addressed to the Duke of Wur- 
temberg, Oetinger says, " Thirty years previously I had studied 
Svvedenborg's Pi-incipia Renun Naturaliwn in folio, which I 
preferred much to Wolff's philosophy, on account of its lead- 
ing to the Sacred Scripture. It is wonderful how a philoso- 
pher, who was accustomed to think according to the rules of 
mechanics, should have become a prophet." 

From Swedenborg himself Oetinger received the following 
reply to one of his queries : — 

"Why from being a philosopher I have been chosen? 
Answer : The cause of this has been, that the spiritual things 
which are being revealed at the present day may be taught 
and understood naturally and rationally : for spiritual truths 



LETTER TO OETINGER. 369 

have a correspondence with natural truths, because in these 
they terminate, and upon these they rest. That there is a 
correspondence of all spiritual things with all things of man, 
as well as with all things of the earth, may be seen in the 
work on Heaven and Hell. For this reason I was introduced 
by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared ; 
and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was 
opened to me. Every one also is led by means of natural 
things to spiritual things : for man is born natural ; by edu- 
cation he is moral, and afterwards by regeneration from the 
Lord he becomes spiritual. The Lord has granted to me 
besides to love truths in a spiritual manner, that is, to love 
them, not for the sake of honor, nor for the sake of gain, but 
for the sake of the truths themselves ; for he who loves truths 
for the sake of the truth, sees them from the Lord, because 
the Lord is the Way and the Truth (John xiv. 6) ; but he 
who loves them for the sake of honor or gain, sees them from 
himself; and seeing from oneself is equivalent to seeing fal- 
sities. Falsities that have been confirmed close the Church, 
wherefore truths rationally understood have to open it. How 
else can spiritual things which transcend the understanding 
be understood, acknowledged, and received? The dogma 
that has been handed down by the Papists, and accepted by 
the Protestants, namely, that the understanding is to be held 
in bondage under obedience to faith, has a second time 
closed the Church, and what else is to open it again, except 
an understanding enlightened by the Lord? " 

Surely it is little matter of surprise that Papist and Protes- 
tant leaders, interested to the last degree in maintaining this 
bondage of reason, as the means of securing their own 
supremacy, should resist with despairing violence the break- 
ing of chains and bursting of doors that attended the publi- 
cation of the Doctrines of the New Church. But what can 
better attest the breaking of these bonds, and the light of the 
New Heaven in its broad descent from that time, than the 

astonishment with which we now look back at the slavery 

24 



3/ r O OPPOSITION. 

of reason to blind faith, in the age that then began to see 
its end? 

Much sensible matter was written by Oetinger, Beyer, and 
Rosen, in defence of Swedenborg, for which we have not 
space. We will content ourselves with copying the beginning 
of a letter from Dr. Rosen to a Senator and Councillor : 

"Gracious Sir,— As Swedenborgianism and I have fallen into the 
hands of your Excellency, I will not distress myself about a fortunate 
issue of our cause and my acquittal. The exigency of the case, never- 
theless, requires that, with your gracious leave, I should explain my- 
self at greater length. . . . 

"Gracious Sir, the essence of the purity of our doctrine is its ac- 
cordance with Scripture; and the laws of Sweden, especially a law 
dating from 1766, indicate this. If all Christians who are related to 
us by faith appeal to God's Word, though some do violence to it and 
strain it, nevertheless if we examine this matter justly and, as it were, 
standing in God's presence, the question resolves itself into this, — 
Who has really the law and the Word on his side ? He who has is 
orthodox, and he alone. A great advance in linguistics and an ac- 
cumulation of inestimable philological and philosophical discoveries, 
made in recent times, give me a just hope that an amendment in our 
faith and life, which is as possible as it is necessary, will eventually 
take place. And now it happens that a wonderful man, who gives 
evidence of a most unusual learning in natural and spiritual things, 
declares that he has been sent by the Lord for such a purpose ; and, 
on being asked for his credentials, he solves all involved theological 
problems, strikes down naturalism and superstition, with the same 
weapons exposes the nakedness of the learned, and subjects himself 
to the good and evil report of the Lord's Apostles ; he manifests 
the greatest possible veneration for Scripture, he worships God, and 
urges man to sanctification : in short, he seeks to promote the honor of 
the Most High. It is excusable if, for such a man, whose 'eyes are 
open' (Num. xxiv. 4), and 'in whom is undoubtedly the spirit of the 
holy gods' (Dan. v. 11), — I should conceive some veneration. Mere 
curiosity, however, has not led me to his doctrines, but I have been 
drawn to them by their consistency with God's Word." 

Dr. Rosen survived Swedenborg but a year and a half. Dr. 
Beyer continued to labor on his Indexes till they were com- 
pleted, in 1 779 ; and soon after he had sent the last sheet of 
manuscript to Amsterdam, he too went to join his friend and 
teacher in the world of their affections. 



CHAPTER XV. 

FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS OF SWEDENBORG. 

We have shown the esteem for Swedenborg of two of the 
men named by Kurtz as the leading religious spirits of this 
period in Germany, — Jung- Stilling and Oetinger. That of 
a third, Lavater, is sufficiently shown in two letters to Swe- 
denborg, the second and shorter of which we will copy : — 

" Most noble, venerable, and beloved in Christ our Lord: — I have 
taken the liberty of writing to you a second time, as it is likely you 
may not have received my other letter, on account of your travels ; but 
I have at last learned by what means this will probably reach you. 

" I revere the wonderful gifts you have received from God. I revere 
the wisdom which shines forth from your writings, and therefore cannot 
but seek the friendship of so great and excellent a man now living. If 
what is reported be true, God will show you how much I seek to con- 
verse with you in the simplicity of my mind. I am a young man, not 
yet thirty years old, a minister of the Gospel ; I am and shall remain 
employed in the cause of Christ as long as I live. I have written 
something on the happiness of the future life. Oh, if I could exchange 
letters with you on this subject, or rather converse ! 

" I add some writing : you shall know my soul. 

" One thing I beg of you, Divinely inspired man ! I beseech you by 
the Lord not to refuse me ! 

" In the month of March, 1768, died Felix Hess, my best friend, a 
youth of Zurich, twenty-four years of age, an upright man, of a noble 
mind, striving after a Christian spirit, but not yet clothed with Christ. 
Tell me, I pray, what he is doing. Paint to me his figure, state, etc., in 
such words that I may know that God's truth is in you. . . . 

" I am your brother in Christ. Answer very soon a sincere brother ; 
and answer the letter I have sent in such a manner that / may see 
what I am believing on the testimony of others. 

" Christ be with us, to whom we belong, living or dead. 

"John Casper Lavater, 

" Zurich in Switzerland, "Minister at the Orphan Asylum. 
"Sept. 24, 1769." 



372 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

We do not know what reply this letter received, but we 
have incidental knowledge of Swedenborg's purpose two years 
later of going to Switzerland to visit his correspondent ; and 
the influence of his own writings on Lavater's views is appar- 
ent in the latter's " Fifteen Letters on the Scriptural Doctrine 
of our Reconciliation with God through Christ," and in his 
dissertations on " Jesus Christ ever the same, not limited by 
Time and Space." Indeed, an attack on Lavater's views and 
Swedenborg's together was made by a professor of theology, 
Semler. Of his preaching, Steffens's autobiography, quoted 
by Hagenbach (i. 500), gives this charming account : — 

" ' He [Lavater] preached in the Reformed Church, and I both saw 
a»d heard him. His figure, as it still appears before me, was highly 
interesting. The tall, slender man slightly stooped in walking ; his 
physiognomy was extremely intellectual, and his sharp features gave 
testimony of an excited past and of inner struggles ; and his eyes 
flashed fervor, brilliance, and clearness. . . . The small Reformed 
Church was crowded, and a solemn quiet pervaded the assembly. . . . 
It is very remarkable how this sermon won me and held me spell- 
bound. He not only expressed the confidence of faith, but also the 
deep and overpowering feelings of the heart. It seemed to me that I 
was hearing for the first time the voice for which I had been longing. 
His sermon treated on prayer. That inward and deeply concealed, 
yet pious life of my childhood, which I had enjoyed in the quiet room 
of my mother, and which profoundly influenced my inmost soul, but 
could only be gently whispered externally, now seemed to awaken me, 
a slumberer, from my long sleep, as with a voice of thunder. With 
that overpowering truth which can only be portrayed by one who 
speaks aloud his inward experience, he described those outward and 
inward struggles by which victory can only be won through prayer. 
His language, which seemed to me so repulsive at the beginning, was 
now more beautiful, clear, and inspiring, — it seemed to me to be in 
possession of such a living force as would be impossible to any 
other.' " 

Matthius Claudius, another of the men referred to by 
Kurtz, a poet and religious writer, had no personal acquain- 
tance with Swedenborg, but reflected the esteem of others. 

" Now," he says, " after Swedenborg had made himself acquainted 
with all the erudition of his time, and after the greatest honors had 



FATHER OBERLIN. 



373 



been bestowed upon him by individuals and whole societies, he began 
to see spirits. . . . He was always a virtuous man, and one who was 
interiorly affected with the beauty and majesty of the visible world. . . . 
We cannot help thinking that there are spirits, and Swedenborg often 
affirmed in his lifetime with great earnestness, and even on his death- 
bed . . . that he was able to see spirits, and had seen them. Now as 
the new world really existed long before Columbus found it out, 
though we in Europe were ignorant of its existence, so perhaps there 
may be a means to see spirits. ... In the opinion of many wise 
people there lies a great deal of truth hidden perhaps close by us." 

Father Oberlin, of Ban-de-la-Roche, yet another of "the 
most brilliant and best-known names of the faithful sons of 
the Church," and held in reverence everywhere for his love 
and piety, was asked by an English visitor, the Rev. J. H. 
Smithson, whether he had read any of the works of Sweden- 
borg. 

" He immediately reached a book, and clapping his hand upon it, ex- 
pressive of great satisfaction, told me that he had had this treasure a 
great many years in his library, and that he knew from his own expe- 
rience that everything related in it was true. This treasure was Swe- 
denborg's work on Heaven and Hell" In answer to inquiry how he 
came to this conviction, " he replied that when he first came to reside as 
pastor among the inhabitants of Steinthal, they had many superstitious 
notions respecting the proximity of the spiritual world, and of the ap- 
pearance of various objects and phenomena in that world which, from 
time to time, were seen by some of the people belonging to his flock. 
For instance, it was not unusual for a person who had died to appear 
to some individual in the valley. This gift of second sight, or the 
opening of the spiritual sight, to see objects in a spiritual state of 
existence, was, however, confined to a few persons, and continued but 
a short period and at different intervals of time. The report of every 
new occurrence of this kind was brought to Oberlin, who at length 
became so much annoyed that he was resolved to put down this spe- 
cies of superstition, as he called it, from the pulpit, and exerted himself 
for a considerable time to this end, but with little or no desirable 
effect. Cases became more numerous, and the circumstances so strik- 
ing as even to stagger the scepticism of Oberlin himself. About this 
time, being on a visit to Strasburg, he met with the work on Heaven 
and Hell, which a friend [probably Jung-Stilling] recommended him 
to peruse. This work, as he informed me, gave him a full and satis- 
factory explanation of the extraordinary cases occurring in his valley, 
and which he himself was at length, from evidences which could not 



374 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

be doubted, constrained to admit. The satisfactory solution of these 
extraordinary cases afforded great pleasure to his mind, and he read 
the 'treasure,' as he called it, very attentively, and with increasing 
delight. He no longer doubted the nearness of the spiritual world; 
yea, he believed that man, by virtue of his better part, — his immortal 
mind, — is already an inhabitant of the spiritual world, in which, after 
the death of the material body, he is to continue his existence forever. 
He plainly saw from the correspondent relation existing between the 
two worlds, that when it pleased the Lord, man might easily be placed, 
by opening his spiritual senses, in open communication with the world 
of spirits. This, he observed, was frequently the case with the seers 
mentioned in the Old Testament ; and why might it not be so now, if 
the Divine Providence saw fit, in order to instruct mankind more fully 
in respect to their relation to a spiritual state of existence, and to re- 
plenish their minds with more accurate and copious views respecting 
heaven, the final home of the good, and hell, the final abode of the 
wicked ? . . . From seeing, as explained by Swedenborg, that the 
Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses, Oberlin resolved all the exer- 
tions and operations of his life into one element — use. He taught 
his people that to be useful, and to shun all evil as sin against the 
Lord, in being useful, is the truly heavenly life." * 

We cannot hear too much about the lives of such good 
men. Let us linger with Hagenbach on that of Father 
Oberlin : — 

" In order to conclude the present lecture with a living, personal 
impression, we will leave the intricacies of the Hegelian philosophy 
where we commenced it, and catch a breath of the pure fresh air. We 
pass into a solitary vale, wild by nature but improved by the hands of 
man. We see a plain figure, one of God's worthiest priests. If it 
would not be unprotestant, we would call him, as a certain Protestant 
writer, Hase, has done, ' a saint of his Church.' We mean Pastor 
Oberlin, of the Steinthal. He is well known to you all, and therefore 
I will only remind you of him by recalling his image. From the larger 
and smaller accounts of his life by Stoeber and Schubert, we learn 
the following facts : The son of a Strasburg scholar, he was born in 
the year 1740, and received a careful Christian training. With the 
firm confidence of a disciple and apostle of Christ, he became pastor 
of Waldbach in the year 1767. He trod in the footsteps of a worthy 
predecessor, and communed with the noble friends of humanity whom 
he found in that desolate place, which, though he did not convert into 
a paradise, he did transform into a friendly dwelling-place of indus- 
1 Intellectual Repository, April, 1840. 



FATHER OBERLIN. 



375 



trious men, in whose hearts and families he supplanted roughness of 
sentiment and indolent habits by steady and active Christianity. 

" When we behold this apostolic man become a pattern of self- 
denial, self-conquest, and trust in God, of a mild and peaceful heroism, 
yet always subjecting himself to the laws of God and man; when we 
meet him, in the storms of revolution, preserving with prudence and 
determination, amid fanatics and revolutionists, a Johannean spirit 
which compelled their respect ; when we find him, finally, in his ex- 
treme old age active in the service of his Master, until called to 
heaven in the year 1825, — we cannot longer doubt the power of the 
religious spirit which, in the midst of devastating forces, bears an 
eloquent witness for the Church in which and for which this power 
was active. It is very apparent in Oberlin's case how such demands of 
time as were expressed in philanthropinism were first safely and per- 
manently realized in practical Christianity. How often was it declared 
at the time when Sebaldus Nothanker was written, and very much 
was said of the usefulness of the ministerial office, that the pastor 
must also understand agriculture, and aid his peasants in a secular 
way, if he would ennoble them morally, and win them to the reception 
of the Divine truth ? But these ideas of the preacher remained on 
philanthropinic paper, and became only waste paper, without being 
transformed into flesh and blood. 

" Oberlin did the one without leaving the other undone. He gave 
heavenly and earthly instruction at the same time, and united the two. 
The 'pray and labor' was not something disjointed, but united, and 
therefore blessed. The same was the case with ecclesiastical union. 
Not only did the difference between the Reformed and the Lutheran 
Confessions vanish here completely, but even Catholics attended 
Oberlin's preaching, and he himself declared to a Catholic nobleman, 
that to him every Christian was welcome who believed in our natural 
depravity and in the necessity of our return to God. It was on the 
positive ground of this faith, and not on the negative basis of indiffer- 
ence, that he believed in union, and therefore even Catholic Christians 
could go to his grave and remember him in love. Oberlin's life 
reminds us sometimes of Lavater and Stilling, for we find in it re- 
markable, wonderful, and peculiar elements." 1 

Carl Robsahm, treasurer of the bank at Stockholm, was 
intimate with Swedenborg during his later years, and left 
memoirs of his friend in Swedish, which have been printed in 
German and from that in an English translation. In the 
Rev. R. L. Tafel's Documents, a new English translation is 

1 History of the Church in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, ii. 382. 



376 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

given from the Swedish original, and from this we adopt such 
matters of interest as we have not already given from other 
sources : — 

" Swedenborg's property [in Stockholm] was about a 
stone's cast in length and in breadth. The rooms of his 
dwelling-house were small and plain ; but were comfortable 
for him, though scarcely for any one else. Although he was 
a learned man, no books were ever seen in his room, except 
his Hebrew and Greek Bible, and his manuscript indexes to 
his own works, by which, in making quotations, he was saved 
the trouble of examining all that he had previously written or 
printed. 

" Swedenborg worked without much regard to the distinc- 
tion of day and night, having no fixed time for labor or rest. 
'When I am sleepy,' he said, ' I go to bed.' All the atten- 
dance he required from his servant, his gardener's wife, 
consisted in her making his bed and placing a large jug of 
water in his anteroom, his housekeeping being so arranged 
that he could make his own coffee in his study; and this 
coffee he drank in great abundance, both day and night, and 
with a great deal of sugar. When not invited out, his dinner 
consisted of nothing but a roll soaked in boiled milk ; and 
this was his meal always when he dined at home. He never 
at that time used wine or strong drink, nor did he eat any- 
thing in the evening ; but in company he would eat freely, 
and indulge moderately in a social glass. 

"The fire in the stove of his study was never allowed to go 
out, from autumn through the whole of winter until spring ; 
for as he always needed coffee, and as he always made it him- 
self, without milk or cream, and as he had never any definite 
time for sleeping, he always required to have a fire. 

" His sleeping-room was always without fire ; and when he 
lay down, according to the severity of the winter, he covered 
himself with three or four woollen blankets. But I remember 
one winter which was so cold that he was obliged to move 
his bed into his study. 



CARL ROBSAHM. 7)77 

"As soon as he awoke, he went into his study, where he 
always found glowing embers, put wood on the burning coals 
and a few pieces of birch bark, which for convenience he 
used to purchase in bundles, so as to be able to make a fire 
quickly ; and then he sat down to write. 

"In his drawing-room was the marble table which he 
afterwards presented to the Royal College of Mines ; this 
room was neat and genteel, but plain. 

" His dress in winter consisted of a fur-coat of reindeer 
skin, and in summer of a dressing-gown ; both well worn, as 
became a philosopher's wardrobe. His wearing apparel was 
simple, but neat. Still, it happened sometimes that when he 
prepared to go out, and his people did not call attention to it, 
something would be forgotten or neglected in his dress ; so 
that, for instance, he would put one buckle of gems and 
another of silver in his shoes, — an instance of which absence 
of mind I myself saw at my father's house, where he was 
invited to dine, and the occurrence greatly amused several 
young girls, who took occasion to laugh at the old gentleman. 

" It was difficult for him to talk quickly, for he then stam- 
mered, especially when he was obliged to talk in a foreign 
tongue. Of foreign languages, in addition to the learned 
languages, he understood well French, English, Dutch, Ger- 
man, and Italian ; for he had journeyed several times in these 
countries. He spoke slowly ; and it was always a pleasure to 
be with him at table, for whenever Swedenborg spoke, all 
other talk was hushed ; and the slowness with which he 
spoke had the effect of restraining the frivolous remarks of 
the curious in the assembly. At first he used to talk freely 
about his visions and his explanations of Scripture ; but when 
this displeased the clergy, and they pronounced him a heretic 
or a downright madman, he resolved to be more sparing of 
his communications in company, or at all events to be more 
on his guard, so as not to offer an opportunity to scoffers of 
inveighing against what they could not understand as well 
as himself. 



378 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

"I once addressed the pastor of our parish, an old and 
esteemed clergyman, and asked him what I ought to think of 
Swedenborg's visions and of his explanations of the Bible. 
This honorable man answered me with the spirit of true 
tolerance : ' Let God be the judge how these things are in 
reality ! But I cannot pass the same judgment upon him 
that many others do ; I have spoken with him myself, and I 
have found in company where he was with me that he is a 
pious and good man.' 

'•'The chaplain of the Imperial Russian Legation, Oronos- 
kow, who was in Stockholm during the time of the ambassa- 
dor, Count Ostermann, was a monk of the Alexander-Newsky 
order, and led an orderly and pious life, — quite differently 
from the other Russian priests who had been here before 
him. He became acquainted with me, and I lent him Swe- 
denborg's books, which he said he read with the greatest 
delight. He desired to see Swedenborg, and to talk with 
this remarkable man. I complied with his desire, and invited 
Swedenborg and him to dinner, in company with the late 
President of the Royal College of Commerce, Mr. von Carle- 
son, and the Councillor of Chancery, Mr. Berch, together 
with several of my relatives. During, dinner the chaplain 
asked Swedenborg, among other things, whether he had seen 
the Empress Elizabeth. Swedenborg answered : ' I have 
seen her often, and I know that she is in a very happy state.' 
This answer brought tears of joy into the chaplain's eyes, who 
said that she had been good and just. 'Yes,' said Sweden- 
borg, ' her kind feeling for her people was made known, after 
her death, in the other life ; for there it was shown that she 
never went into council without praying to God and asking 
for His counsel and assistance, in order that she might govern 
well her country and her people.' This gladdened the chap- 
lain so much that he expressed his joyful surprise by silence 
and tears. ... 

"When he [Swedenborg] left Sweden for the last time, he 
came of his own accord to me at the bank on the day he was 



CARL ROBSAHM. 379 

to leave, and gave me a protest against any condemnation of 
his writings during his absence ; which protest was based on 
the law of Sweden, and in which he stated that the House 
of the Clergy was not the only judge in matters of religion, 
inasmuch as theology belonged also to the other Houses. 
On this occasion I asked him the same question as before, 
namely, whether I should ever see him again. His answer 
was tender and touching: 'Whether I shall come again, 
that,' said he, 'I do not yet know; but of this I can assure 
you, for the Lord has promised to me, that I shall not die 
until I have received from the press this work, the Vera 
Christiana Religio, which is now ready to be printed, and for 
the sake of which I now undertake this journey ; but if we 
do not meet again in the body, we shall meet in the presence 
of the Lord, provided we live in this world according to His 
Will, and not according to our own.' He then took leave of. 
me in as blithe and cheerful a frame of mind as if he had 
been a man in his best years ; and the same day he departed 
from Sweden for the last time. 

" I asked Swedenborg once whether his explanations would 
be received in Christendom. 'About that,' said he, 'I can 
say nothing ; but I suppose that in their proper time they will 
be received, for otherwise the Lord would not have disclosed 
what has heretofore lain concealed.' 

"He was never ill, except when temptations came over 
him, but he was frequently troubled with toothache. I came 
to him once on such an occasion, when he complained of a 
severe toothache, which had continued for several days. I 
recommended a common remedy for soothing the pain ; but 
he answered at once that his toothache was not caused by a 
diseased nerve, but by the influx of hell from hypocrites 
who tempted him, and who by correspondence caused this 
pain, which, he said, he knew would soon cease, and leave 
him. 

" Respecting his temptations, I collected information from 
his modest servants, the old gardener and his wife, who told 



38O FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

me with sympathizing and compassionate words that Sweden- 
borg often spoke aloud in his room, and was indignant when 
evil spirits were with him. This they could hear the more 
distinctly, because their room was near his. When he was 
asked why he had been so restless during the night, he an- 
swered that permission had been given to evil spirits to revile 
him, and that he spoke to and was indignant with them. It 
often happened that he wept bitterly, and called out with a 
loud voice, and prayed to the Lord that He would not leave 
him in the temptation which had come upon him. The 
words which he cried out were these : ' O Lord, help me ! O 
Lord my God, do not forsake me ! ' When it was all over, 
and his people asked him about the cause of this lamenta- 
tion, he said : ' God be praised ! it is over now. You must 
not trouble yourselves about me ; for whatever happens to 
me is permitted by the Lord, and He does not suffer me to 
be tempted more than He sees that I can bear.' 

" Once it was very remarkable that, after such a lamentation, 
he lay down and did not rise from his bed for several days 
and nights. This caused his people much uneasiness ; they 
talked with one another, and supposed that he had died from 
some great fright. They thought of having the door forced 
open, or of calling in his intimate friends. At last the man 
went to the window, and to his great joy saw that his master 
was still alive, for he turned himself in bed. The next day 
he rang the bell, and then the housekeeper went in and told 
him of her own and her husband's uneasiness at his con- 
dition ; whereupon he said with a cheerful countenance that 
he was doing well, and that he did not need anything. She 
was satisfied with this answer, for neither of his servants dared 
to interrogate him, since they had the same opinion of him as 
the old clergyman in my parish ; and they added that such a 
wise and learned man would never distress himself with work 
and temptations, if he did not know whence they came." 

At another time Robsahm quotes the gardener's wife as 
saying, — 



CARL ROBSAHM. 38 1 

" ' I can see when he has spoken with heavenly spirits, for 
his face has then an expression of gentleness, cheerfulness, 
and contentment which is charming ; but after he has con- 
versed with evil spirits, he looks sad.' "... 

" During the session of the Diet he was interested in hear- 
ing news from the House of Nobles, of which he was a mem- 
ber by virtue of his being the head of the Swedenborg 
family. He wrote several memorials ; but when he saw that 
party-spirit and self-interest struggled for mastery, he went 
rarely to the House of Nobles. In his conversations with his 
friends he inveighed against the spirit of dissension among 
the members of the Diet; and in acting with a party he 
was never a party man, but loved truth and honesty in all 
he did. 

" I asked Swedenborg whether in our times it was worth 
while to pay attention to dreams ; upon which he answered 
that the Lord no longer at the present day makes revelations 
by dreams ; but that, nevertheless, it may happen that one 
who understands correspondences may derive advantage from 
his dreams, — just as a person that is awake may examine his 
own state by comparing his own will with God's command- 
ments. . . . 

"Whatever Swedenborg wrote was printed from his own 
manuscript, and he never needed the help of an amanuensis. 
His handwriting was difficult to read when he became older ; 
but he said to me : ' The Dutch printers read my handwrit- 
ing as easily as the English do.' There is one thing to be 
observed with regard to most of his spiritual writings, that 
the proof-sheets were corrected very badly, so that errata 
occur very often; the cause of this, he said, was that the 
printer had undertaken the proof-reading, as well as the 
printing. 

"As Swedenborg in his younger days did not think of the 
work which was to occupy him in his more advanced years, 
it can easily be imagined that in his time he was not only a 
learned man, but also a polished gentleman ; for a man of 



382 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

such extensive learning, who by his books, his travels, and 
his knowledge of languages had acquired distinction both at 
home and abroad, could not fail to possess the manners and 
everything else which, in those so-called serious or sober 
times, caused a man to be honored and made him agreeable 
in society. He was accordingly, even in his old age, cheer- 
ful, sprightly, and agreeable in company; yet at the same 
time his countenance presented those uncommon features 
which are seen only in men of great genius." 

To Robsahm's inquiry about the future condition of those 
who are beheaded, Swedenborg answered, — 

" 'When a person who has become matured in wickedness 
is removed from the earth by the law and the axe, although 
to all appearance penitent, he still remains wicked to eter- 
nity, because his conversion is compulsory, and not brought 
about by his own free-will, as required by God. For unless 
his crimes cast him into prison, where he sees death impend- 
ing, he will never direct his thoughts towards God, still less 
his heart, hardened by habit. And such a one, when he 
finds that he lives as before, rushes headlong into the prac- 
tice of all those evil works which he did in the world, and 
quickly brings himself into hell, among the spirits with which 
he had been associated during his life on earth. 

" ' It is quite different, however, with those who are exe- 
cuted on account of some crime which they had committed 
while in a state of intoxication, anger, or indignation, or 
from rashness, without any real intention of doing it. Such 
repent bitterly of what they have done, and if they do not 
confirm themselves against the Lord's commandments dur- 
ing the remainder of their life, they become after their death 
happy and blessed spirits.' " 

Robsahm continues, — " When a certain clergyman died in 
Stockholm, who by his eloquence and his pathetic mode of 
preaching had always his church filled with hearers, I asked 
Swedenborg whether he was not in a blessed state. 'This 
man,' said he, 'went straightway to hell, among the societies 



CARL ROBSAHM. 383 

of hypocrites, for he was spiritually minded only while in the 
pulpit ; at other times he was proud of his talents and of the 
success he had in the world : he was an inflated man. No, 
no,' he added; 'there no dissimulation and no deceitful arts 
are of any avail ; for all these disappear with death, and man 
involuntarily shows himself to be either good, or else evil' 

" I know from experience that there is not a single word 
in all his writings which leads man away from the doing of 
God's will, and consequently from a sincere love of the 
neighbor; there is contained, however, therein an entirely 
new system, which is opposed to the principal religions pro- 
fessed by men, and to all their sects, but which agrees with 
all of them in this particular, that blessedness and misery 
depend upon man's life in this world. 

" All this Swedenborg has proved abundantly in his writ- 
ings, and especially has he written against the dangerous 
doctrine of faith alone ; and if we in the history of the 
Church follow those who have been instrumental in estab- 
lishing religions, we find that all religions, from the earliest 
to the latest times, have been instituted by well-meaning per- 
sons, and that afterwards they have been subverted partly by 
the ignorant and partly by cunning and crafty prelates. In 
conclusion, however, I earnestly desire that every one who 
reads Swedenborg's writings should do so with caution, and 
that he should rather remain in the faith he received in 
childhood, and which was often impressed on him with se- 
verity, and which very few among the professors of faith ex- 
amine, than that he should from frivolity or from blind zeal 
revile what he cannot understand. For such persons read 
all the Prophets and the book of Revelation, where they 
understand nothing, with the same feeling of contempt with 
which they read Swedenborg's system, where, however, every- 
thing may be easily understood by him who does not amuse 
himself at the expense of truth, and who does not reject 
everything that does not agree with his own preconceived 
notions." 



384 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

Robsahm's vivid picture of his friend may be supple- 
mented by the slighter sketches of some of Swedenborg's 
visitors, with less intimate acquaintance. The royal libra- 
rian in Stockholm, Gjorwell, called on him in 1764 to re- 
quest, for the Royal Library, a copy of the works he had 
lately published. His account of his visit to Swedenborg 
is simple, and pleasant to read : — 

"I met him in the garden adjoining his house in the 
Sodermalm [southern part of Stockholm], where he was en- 
gaged in tending his plants, attired in a simple garment. The 
house in which he lives is of wood ; it is low, and looks like 
a garden-house ; its windows also are in the direction of the 
garden. Without knowing me or the nature of my errand, 
he said, smiling : ' Perhaps you would like to take a walk in 
the garden.' I answered that I wished to have the honor of 
calling upon him and asking him, on behalf of the Royal 
Library, for his latest works, so that we might have a com- 
plete set, especially as we had the former parts he had left 
with Wilde, the royal secretary. ' Most willingly,' he an- 
swered; 'besides, I had intended to send them there, as 
my purpose in publishing them has been to make them 
known, and to place them in the hands of intelligent people.' 
I thanked him for his kindness, whereupon he showed them 
to me and took a walk with me in the garden. 

" Although he is an old man, and gray hair protruded in 
every direction from under his wig, he walked briskly, was 
fond of talking, and spoke with a certain cheerfulness. His 
countenance was, indeed, thin and meagre, but cheerful and 
smiling. By and by he began of his own accord to speak of 
his views ; and as it had been in reality my second purpose 
to hear them with my own ears, I listened to him with eager 
attention, not challenging any of his statements, but simply 
asking him questions, as if for my own enlightenment. The 
substance of his statements, and of what I drew from him by 
polite questions, consists mainly in what follows : — 

"His doctrinal system of theology, which he in common 



GJOR WELL'S VISIT. 385 

with other Christians bases upon our common revelation, 
the Sacred Scripture, consists principally in this : That faith 
alone is a pernicious doctrine, and that good works are the 
proper means for becoming better in time, and for leading a 
blessed life in eternity. That in order to acquire the ability 
or power to do good works, prayer to the Only God is re- 
quired, and that man also must labor with himself, because 
God does not use compulsion with us, nor does Fie work 
any miracles for our conversion. As regards the rest, man 
must live in his appointed place, acquiring the same learning, 
and leading a life similar to that of other honest and modest 
persons who live temperately and piously. About the atone- 
ment and our Saviour, he said not a word. It is a pity I did 
not ask him about it. But his thoughts on this our funda- 
mental article of faith may be inferred from his expression 
about faith alone." 

Readers of Swedenborg will recognize this as a simple, 
clear, and true presentation of New-Church doctrine, as far 
as it goes. If the librarian had asked about our Saviour, he 
would have found that Swedenborg was thinking of Him all 
the time, as the Only God in His Humanity • and he would 
have learned that the atonement is nothing else than the 
glorification of this Humanity, and our redemption thereby. 

Gjorwell goes on to say, according to Swedenborg, — 

" That God revealed Himself to him in May, 1 744, while 
he was in London, and that up to that time God had pre- 
pared him by a thorough knowledge of all physical and 
moral powers in this world for the reception of the new 
revelation ; and ever since that time he has constantly and 
without interruption been in communion with God, whom he 
sees before his eyes like a sun. He speaks with angels and 
the departed, and knows whatever takes place in the other 
world, as well in heaven as in hell ; but he does not know the 
future. 

" His mission consists in communicating this new light to 
the world; and whoever is willing to accept it receives it. 

25 



386 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

The Lord also has granted him this revelation, that he may 
make it known to others, which he has done in Latin, the 
most universal language in the world. ' He alone has re- 
ceived this revelation, which also is a most particular gift, 
which he makes use of for the enlightenment of mankind. 
He who does not scorn this light, and who does not resist 
this revelation, receives it ; and this revelation is living truth. 
Its object really is that a New Jerusalem is to be established 
among men ; the meaning of which is that a New Church is 
at hand, about the nature of which, and the way to enter it, 
his writings really treat. 

"About all this he spoke with a perfect conviction, laying 
particular stress upon these words : 'All this I see and 
know without becoming the subject of any visions, and with- 
out being a fanatic ; but when I am alone, my soul is as it 
were out of the body, and in the other world : in all respects 
I am in a visible manner there,' as I am here. But when I 
think of what I am about to write, and while I am in the 
act of writing, I enjoy a perfect inspiration [sa ager jag en 
full komlig inspiration] ; for otherwise it would be my own ; 
but now I know for certain that what I write is the living 
truth of God." 

That the word "inspiration" is not here used in the sense 
of dictation, or as used in reference to the writers of the 
Scriptures, but in the sense of clear enlightenment of the 
reason, is certain from Swedenborg's constant teaching, al- 
ready quoted, that this is the only kind of inspiration grant- 
ed by the Lord at this day. 

The Rev. Nicholas Collin, in 1820, rector of the quaint 
old Swedish Church in Philadelphia, the same that was built 
in 1 700 under Bishop Swedberg's charge, lived, when a young 
man, three years in Stockholm, at a time when " Sweden- 
borg was a great object of public attention in that metro- 
polis, and his extraordinary character was a frequent topic of 
discussion. Not seldom he appeared in public, and mixed in 
private circles ; therefore sufficient opportunities were given 



COLLIN'S VISIT. 387 

to make observations on him." Mr. Collin was not a fol- 
lower of Swedenborg, but obligingly gave public information 
about him on several occasions. Of a visit of his own, he 
writes as follows : — 

"In the summer of 1766 I waited on him at his house, 
introducing myself, with an apology for the freedom I took, 
assuring him that it was not in the least from youthful 
presumption (I was then twenty), but from a strong de- 
sire of conversing with a character so celebrated. He re- 
ceived me very kindly. It being early in the afternoon, 
delicate coffee, without eatables, was served, agreeably to the 
Swedish custom : he was also, like pensive men in general, 
fond of this beverage. We conversed for nearly three hours, 
principally on the nature of human souls and their states in 
the invisible world, discussing the principal theories of psy- 
chology by various authors, — among them the celebrated 
Dr. Wallerius, late professor of Natural Theology at Upsal. 
He asserted positively, as he often does in his works, that he 
had intercourse with spirits of deceased persons. I pre- 
sumed, therefore, to request of him, as a great favor, to pro- 
cure me an interview with my brother, who had departed 
this life a few months before, a young clergyman officiating 
in Stockholm and esteemed for his devotion, erudition, and 
virtue. He answered that, God having for wise and good 
purposes separated the world of spirits from ours, a com- 
munication is never granted without cogent reasons, and 
asked what my motives were. I confessed that I had none 
besides gratifying brotherly affection and an ardent wish to 
explore scenes so sublime and interesting to a serious mind. 
He replied that my motives were good, but not sufficient ; 
that if any important spiritual or temporal concern of mine 
had been the case, he would then have solicited permission 
from those angels who regulate such matters." 

In explanation of this last sentence, which was called in 
question, as hardly in accordance with any of Swedenborg's 
teachings, Mr. Collin said that it did not imply any worship 



388 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

of angels, but only a request to them, as agents under Divine 
command. It is much more usual with Swedenborg to ask 
favors, even as simple as this, from the Lord. It is his con- 
stant habit to refer everything to the permission or grace 
of the Lord, even when it is plain to see that the favor is 
granted, not specially, but in the regular course of the Divine 
Providence, and perhaps through ordinary angelic or human 
agency : such is his delight to perceive and confess the hand 
of the Lord in everything ! And yet it is entirely in accord- 
ance with his teachings that such matters, and all matters in 
which the Lord can use the faculties of angels, are intrusted 
to them, acting under enlightenment from Him. 

In another letter ]\Ir. Collin said, — 

"Swedenborg was universally esteemed for his various 
erudition in mathematics, mineralogy, etc., and for his prob- 
ity, benevolence, and general virtue. Being very old when 
I saw him, he was thin and pale ; but he still retained traces 
of beauty in his physiognomy, and a dignity in his tall and 
erect stature." 

To our good friend, Mr. Zina Hyde, Mr. Collin said, — 

" Swedenborg was of a stature a little above the common 
size, of very perfect form, erect and easy in his carriage, 
with a placid expression of dignity beaming from his coun- 
tenance ; he was affable in his manners, easy of access, and 
always ready to converse freely on subjects relating to either 
world, but singularly unapt to obtrude his ideas on others, 
either in conversation or by his writings, though firm and 
unwavering with regard to the truth of his relations. His 
history from very early life was reputed to be such as evinced 
great purity, as well as strength, of mental character." Speak- 
ing of the affair of the Queen of Sweden, which her libra- 
rian had told him from her mouth, and of other similar 
occurrences, Mr. Collin said that he believed "no one at 
Stockholm presumed to doubt of his having some kind of 
supernatural intercourse with the spiritual world in all these 
cases," and this, he said, was not strange, "for at that time 



SCHERER'S STORY. 389 

occasional communication between this and the invisible 
world was believed to exist by many of the most learned 
men in Sweden." 

Dr. J. F. I. Tafel, with his friend the Rev. Mr. Moser, 
was told by Professor Scherer, of Tubingen University, who 
had resided at Stockholm during Swedenborg's time as secre- 
tary to an embassy, that "in Stockholm, in all companies, 
very much was said about the spirit-seer, Swedenborg, and 
wonderful things were related respecting his intercourse with 
spirits and angels. But the judgment pronounced concern- 
ing him was various. Some gave full credit to his visions, 
others passed them by as incomprehensible, and others re- 
jected them as fanatical ; but he himself had never been able 
to believe them. Swedenborg, however, on account of his 
excellent character, was universally held in high estimation." 

Among other remarkable things Professor Scherer related 
that " Swedenborg was one evening in company in Stock- 
holm, when, after his information about the world of spirits 
had been heard with the greatest attention, they put him to 
the proof as to the credibility of his extraordinary spiritual 
communications. The test was this : he should state which 
of the company would die first. Swedenborg did not refuse 
to answer this question, but after some time, in which he ap- 
peared to be in profound and silent meditation, he quite 
openly replied : ' Olof Olofsohn will die to-morrow morn- 
ing at forty-five minutes past four o'clock.' By this predic- 
tive declaration, which was pronounced by Swedenborg with 
all confidence, the company were placed in anxious expec- 
tation, and a gentleman who was a friend of Olof Olofsohn 
resolved to go on the following morning, at the time men- 
tioned by Swedenborg, to the house of Olofsohn, to see 
whether Swedenborg's prediction was fulfilled. On the way 
thither he met the well-known servant of Olofsohn, who told 
him that his master had just then died : a fit of apoplexy 
had seized him, and had suddenly put an end to his life. 
Upon which the gentleman, through the evidence of the 



390 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

death which really occurred, was convinced. At the same 
time this particular circumstance also attracted attention : 
the clock in Olofsohn's dwelling apartment stopped at the 
very minute in which he had expired, and the hand pointed 
to the time." 

A peculiar and instructive answer was given by Sweden- 
borg to a question propounded by a foreign minister in 1771, 
in the following terms : — 

" It is hoped that by means of Monsieur de Swedenborg 
information may be obtained of what has become of the 
Prince of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, named John William, who 
was lost in the year 1745, without any one having the least 
knowledge of his fate. Neither his age nor anything else 
respecting his person has been communicated." 

Swedenborg replied in writing, — 

" No one can find out anything about this, since the de- 
parted themselves do not know in what manner they died or 
perished in the world ; for death to them is not death, but an 
entrance into the other life and a continuation of the former. 
They also fully believe and think that there is no death at 
all • wherefore, if any one is asked about his disease in the 
world, it seems to him as if he was asked about a thing which 
has not happened. Besides, it is difficult to meet with any one 
who departed this life twenty-seven years ago ; for he is then 
firmly established in some society where it is difficult for me 
to enter. Should I ask the angels on this subject, they have 
no such knowledge at all, and as to interrogating the Lord 
Himself concerning it, it is too small a matter." 

On the other hand, as by accident, we occasionally get 
from Swedenborg's intercourse with the other world an in- 
teresting 'personal or historical hint. In his " Diary," under 
date of December 13, 1759, he notes that Louis XIV., who 
reigned in France from 1643 to 1715, came near him in 
spirit that evening, and went down some steps in front, then 
stopped, and said that there he found Versailles, just as it had 
been in his time. It seemed then that the King became 



BISHOP HALENIUS. 



391 



abstracted, as in sleep, and all kept silence about him for 
some two hours, when he aroused as if out of sleep. Speak- 
ing with Swedenborg, he. said that he had been with his 
great-grandson, Louis XV., and urged him in various ways 
to desist altogether from pushing the Bull Unigenitus, — 
which, at the instigation of the Jesuits, he had hitherto 
tried to force upon the Parliament and people. 

Accordingly, for reasons unknown to history, Louis XV. 
thereafter did nothing more to support the Bull ; and a few 
years later he expelled the Jesuits from France. 

Swedenborg was cautious about private conversations, es- 
pecially with unknown women who called to make inquiries, 
and required the presence of his servants or a friend, and 
the conversation to be in Swedish. Bishop Halenius, a suc- 
cessor of Bishop Swedberg, visiting him, and the conversa- 
tion turning on sermons, Swedenborg said to him : "You 
spread falsities in yours." On this the Bishop asked the 
servant to withdraw ; but Swedenborg told her to stay, and 
went on to reprove the Bishop for his injustice and avarice, 
saying : " there is already prepared for you a place in hell ; 
but I predict to you that in a few months you will be attacked 
by a severe illness, during which the Lord will seek to con- 
vert you. If you will then open your heart to His holy in- 
fluences, your conversion will be accomplished. Write me 
then, and ask me for my theological writings, and I will send 
them to you." After a few months an officer of the Bishop's 
province called upon Swedenborg. "How is Bishop Hale- 
nius?" Swedenborg asked. "He has been very ill," he re- 
plied, " but he has now recovered, and is altogether a different 
man. He is kind, benevolent, full of righteousness, and re- 
turns threefold, and sometimes fourfold, what he had before 
acquired by unrighteous means." From that time the Bishop 
was "one of the warmest friends of the doctrines of the 
Lord's New Church, and he openly declared that the theo- 
logical writings of Swedenborg were the most precious trea- 
sures of humanity." 1 

1 Pernety. 



392 FRIENDLY ACCOUNTS. 

Pleasantly, a lady of Linkoping writes to the Rev. R. L. 
Tafel, in 1869, that the daughter of this same Bishop Hale- 
nius told her as follows : — 

" When quite a child she and her brothers came up to 
Stockholm, in the year 1767, in order to be present at their 
father's funeral. One day [after the funeral] the children 
were asked to dine with one of their father's friends, who 
lived in the southern part of the town. While walking up 
Hornsgatan they were overtaken by a violent shower of rain, 
from which they sought refuge in the hall of a house. Here 
an elderly gentleman came cheerfully towards them, and told 
them that they were very welcome. This gentleman was 
Emanuel Swedenborg. And when the elder brother, who was 
then a mere boy, stepped forward to tell him why they entered 
his house, and that they were the children of Bishop Halenius, 
Swedenborg interrupted the lad by saying, ' I know it already, 
for your father has just been with me, and told me that you 
were coming.' He then asked them to step into his room ; 
and after conversing with him about an hour, until the rain 
stopped, they continued on their way." 

Another elderly lady said that, — 

" When four years old she took a walk one Sunday afternoon 
with her parents from Kungsbaken to Swedensborg's property 
in Hornsgatan, in order to visit his garden. This was open 
to the public, but not to children whose manners displeased 
this remarkable man. At the entrance to the garden, the 
gardener gave the family to understand that they could not 
enter, on account of the child's being with them. But Swe- 
denborg, who was at some distance from them in one of the 
garden walks, called out to the gardener to open the gate, as 
the child was so strictly trained to obedience that she would 
do no harm. The little girl thought this remark quite natural, 
because she knew it to be true ; but later in life she won- 
dered how Swedenborg could have known it, as her family 
lived at a great distance, in the northern portion of the town, 
and was not in the habit of visiting the southern portion." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HOME LIFE OF SWEDENBORG. 

Stockholm is built on a number of small islands, at the 
junction of the Lake Mcelar with the Baltic. The islands 
are joined by thirteen short bridges to each other and to the 
mainland, north and south. On the islands are the palace, 
the cathedral, the bank, and other public buildings. But most 
of the residences are on the mainland, in the Norrmalm, or 
northern suburb, and in the Sodermalm, or southern suburb. 
The Norrmalm slopes gradually back from the shore ; but the 
Sodermalm "rises in bold, abrupt cliffs, where the white 
houses nestle beautifully among shading trees." 1 

In the Sodermalm, nestling among his own beautiful lime- 
trees, was Swedenborg's humble one-story, gambrel-roofed 
dwelling, quietly withdrawn, with its little red stable and 
larger yellow plant-house, to the eastern end of the en- 
closure, leaving about an acre for the garden, upon which 
the house faced. 

In the garden was the chief attraction of the place. This 
was laid out formally, in accordance with the taste of the 
times, with straight border paths and two crossing at right 
angles in the middle. At their crossing a rustic summer-house 
was placed, with four doors opening in four directions on the 
walks, and made to fold back across the corners of the room, 
so that, when they stood open, they made of it an octagon. 
Opposite this summer-house, against the high board-fence 
which separated the garden from the street, was another 

1 Bremner's Excursions, i. 342. 



394 HOME LIFE OF SWEDENBORG. 

summer-house, with three doors opening on the paths in 
front and on the two sides. Opposite the front entrance 
appeared another door. On opening this there was seen 
another garden, the image of the one already traversed, seen 
in a mirror, behind which was the wall of the building and 
the board-fence. From a third summer-house, which we 
understand to have been at the middle of the west side, a 
passage led into a neat, retired library, where Swedenborg sat 
and wrote in peace, save when interrupted by friendly visitors, 
for whose pleasure he had built the summer-houses, and also 
a curious maze, or labyrinth, — his own pleasure being in his 
fruits and flowers. Among his letters and accounts from 
Holland we find items of rare bulbs and seeds and plants, 
shipped by his correspondents. In an old almanac, for 1750, 
are found his entries of the days on which he planted certain 
choice auriculas, pinks, etc., the time they bloomed, and 
what seed he saved from them. Certain quaint old box-trees, 
curiously trimmed and trained in Holland, of whose importa- 
tion we have an account, were still to be seen a few years ago. 
Of the gardener and his wife who had the care of these 
premises we have found frequent mention. A pretty story is 
told of them in a Swedish book by Dr. Wetterbey, called 
Altartaflan, — Altar-pictures, of which the Rev. R. L. Tafel 
gives us the translation. A young man sees pictures, or vis- 
ions, which his father explains. Says Alfred, the son,— 

" I saw a large peasant-house, with a dark, pointed roof; under the 
roof there were suspended long poles with bread, as is the custom in 
Swedish peasant houses. It seemed to me, however, as if it were not 
a common peasant's house, although the furniture, the open fire-place 
with the burning logs, surrounded by men carving wood and women 
spinning, indicated that it was really a peasant's house. An old man 
was sitting on a three-legged stool, and seemed to be resting himself, 
surrounded by his servants. Suddenly a young man entered the 
house, went towards the old man, reached out his hand to him and 
said, — 'Do you know, father, Jesper has been ordained a priest?' 
The old man folded his hands and said, — ' May God grant that this 
was done in a blessed hour; Jesper has a difficult office.' Then this 
vision disappeared. Soon another took its place ; and I saw two pic- 



THE SWEDBERG FAMILY. 395 

tures. In one of them was a venerable, grave, but mild man, dressed 
in a bishop's garb, and laying his hands upon the curly head of a boy. 
The boy looked up, with his clear, penetrating eyes, as if he had asked 
something to which he expected an answer. There was inspiration in 
his look. In the other picture there was a peasant, who went over 
his field sowing ; and at one end of the field there sat a boy reading a 
book. But soon these pictures disappeared, and I saw nothing more." 

The father looked smilingly on his son during this narration, 
and at its close he said, — 

" This is a legend from olden times. If I am not mistaken, you 
have been at our old homestead, with Daniel Isaksson, in Sweden, 
near Fahlun. I know this well, partly from our family history, as it 
has been told me, and partly from other sources. You see, Alfred, 
Daniel Isaksson was an honest miner, — half peasant and half miner ; 
he was joint owner of several blasting furnaces, which were run at 
common expense, according to the old mining usage which gave each 
of the stockholders the blasting of a certain number of days. The 
young farmer who came in and reached out his hand to the old man 
was my grandfather, Isak Danielsson, and Jesper, who became a 
priest, was his brother, — Jesper Swedberg. You saw him afterwards 
as a bishop, and the inquiring boy at his knees, with the look of inspi- 
ration, was Emanuel Swedenborg. The peasant sowing was again my 
grandfather, and the boy who sat at one end of the field was my 
father ; he also became a priest, and called himself Danielius, which 
I have changed into Danieli." 

" We are then of the same stock as the noble seer," said Alfred. 

" Yes, Alfred. When strange thoughts pass through my soul, and 
I speak as it were not from my own mind, then I think to myself, — 
'This is in our family.' There is something that has not yet been 
cleared up in the heart of our family, a sort of family disorder. I can- 
not call it by any other name, for it is something so uncommon. But 
enough of this, Alfred. There are strange thoughts among them, and 
presentiments which are quite surprising : but ' This is in our family.' " 

Alfred smiled and said, — 

" It is in the whole human family." 

" Yes, certainly, there is a great deal in man of which we know 
nothing ; there are faculties in him that none of us suspect. So, for 
instance, the savage in Africa sees the water flowing deep under the 
surface of the earth ; he says, — ' Here is water ; ' and on digging far 
down it is found. This is neither sight, nor smell, nor hearing ; and 
yet it is some kind of sense, however it may be called ; and it is a 
sense of which we know nothing in Europe, and in the absence of 



396 HOME LIFE. 

which a civilized and enlightened human being dies of thirst, a few 
feet from the spring that might save him." 

" But, father, did you never in your youth see Swedenborg and talk 
with him ? " said Alfred. 

u No, my son ; only once during the lifetime of this remarkable 
man was my father in Stockholm ; but Swedenborg was at that time 
in England, where he frequently resided, and we did not meet him. 
We visited the house which he owned in the Sodermalm. I was then 
a mere boy, but I recollect it as well as if it had happened only to-day. 
My fancy was very much excited, and I expected to find the place 
where this wonderful man resided something between a church and a 
burying-vault. 

" My father, although he was an Orthodox priest, had nevertheless 
also a tendency to mysticism. But he labored as much as possible 
against this bias of his nature, and in his anxiety to overcome it he 
went further than he otherwise would have done. In consequence of 
this, he always described Swedenborg to me as a sort of visionary, and 
his doctrine as thoroughly un-Christian and without any foundation. 
Yet, in spite of all this, I noticed that these prejudices were merely a 
thin veil, under which there lay concealed a feeling of deep venera- 
tion for this uncommonly gifted man. Children generally have this 
faculty of seeing through the shell to the kernel. And it is this which 
often renders them familiar and unrestrained in the company of a 
stern old man, and in tumbling up his gray locks ; when, on the other 
hand, they will hide away in a corner when a smooth-tongued cour- 
teous man of the world desires to flatter them. We can always rest 
assured that children will gather around a man who loves them, 
though he may not have expressed his fondness by a single word. In 
short, I saw through my good old father, how his words belied his 
inner feeling ; and this contradiction increased my curiosity to know 
something about our absent kinsman, who it seemed to me was him- 
self a sort of spirit-being. 

" But he was not at home ; the little building in which he used to 
live was in the rear of a large garden, full of berry-bushes and fruit- 
trees. How simple and unassuming was this house ! Nothing like 
the enchanted castle in the Arabian Nights, which I had pictured to 
myself. Instead of the castle, I found a one-storied dwelling-house, 
with a few dark rooms ; and instead of an enchanted dwarf there 
came out a cheerful, friendly little woman, who asked whether we 
wished to see the Assessor's room ? 

" When the good old woman learned that we were distantly related 
to her Assessor, the band of her tongue was loosed, and she related to 
us a little story, which I have never seen in print, and perhaps better 
than anything else characterizes Swedenborg as a man. ' Yes,' said 



STORY OF THE GARDENER. " 397 

the little old woman, ' people judge without seeing, and this almost 
cost me and Andersson our places. You see my old man who goes 
yonder, raking the flower-beds : it almost cost us our whole happiness.' 

" ' How so ? ' asked my father. 

" ' You know, dear Pastor, there were so many among our friends 
who said to me, — " You ought not to serve in Swedenborg's house, for 
he is no Christian," they said. Now the truth is, that then, as now, 
we thought ever so much of our Assessor, but when I heard that he 
had not the true faith which leads to blessedness, I began to doubt 
whether it was right to serve in his house. It was a hard struggle, 
for I thought as much of the Assessor as of my own father ; and so 
I lay many a night weeping bitterly that the Assessor was not a Chris- 
tian, and praying for the salvation of his soul. I really fretted myself 
ill out of mere sorrow, for you see my friends worried me so much, 
and insisted that I should leave the house of this heathen, who did not 
believe in Christ, — for so they said. At last Andersson noticed that 
I no longer ate or drank, and wanted to know the cause, and begged 
so hard that I told him all. Yes, Andersson is a good man, and he 
always believes me rather than himself; and so he also began to 
worry.' 

" But if I should tell the whole story in her words," said Dan- 
ieli, "it would make it too long, and so I shall relate more briefly what 

happened. 

" One day the old man and the old woman, the modest gardener-folks, 
dressed in their holiday suits, entered Swedenborg's silent study, the 
room with the brown panel-paintings, the gable windows, and a view 
out on the lilac bushes. Swedenborg sat with his head resting upon 
both hands, poring over a large book. Astonished at the unusual 
noise, he raised his head and looked towards the door. There stood 
the good gardener-folks, though but the middle of the week, both 
dressed in their holiday clothes, bowing and curtseying. On Sweden- 
borg's grave but cheerful countenance there played an inquiring smile. 

'"Why dressed up so, Andersson and Margaret?' he said, 'What 
do you want ? ' 

" This was not in truth easy to say, and, instead of an answer, Mar- 
garet began to cry, and her husband crushed his hat into a thousand 
wrinkles, and in his heart wished himself more than a thousand miles 
away. 

"'Is there any care that lies upon your hearts, any distress which 
has suddenly come over you ? ' said Swedenborg, — ' Then speak out 
plainly, and, with God's help, it will all go well again.' 

" ' Yes,' at last said the old gardener, ' yes, we wish to leave the 
Assessor's service.' 

" Swedenborg seemed surprised. < Leave me ! and why ? ' he asked, 



398 HOME LIFE. 

with his penetrating, friendly look, which pierced them to their very 
heart ; ' I thought, as we were growing old together, we should to our 
very end remain faithful to one another, and never separate in this 
life.' 

" ' Yes, so also we thought ourselves,' burst out the housewife, al- 
most overcome with tears; 'for thirty years we have served you, and 
I thought it would be God's pleasure that we should die in your gar- 
den, and under your eyes ; but, but — ' 

" ' Speak out, woman ; what lies so heavily upon your heart ? I 
know that both of you think a great deal of me. Is it not so ? ' 

" ' Yes, before God it is so/ said both of them together. 

"'Speak out then,' said Swedenborg with a smile, 'and then we 
may be able to help the matter.' 

" The housewife, whose strong emotion gave her courage to speak, 
and words to express her thoughts, at last began : ' Yes, people say 
we ought not to serve you any longer, because you are not a right 
Christian.' 

" ' Nothing else, my good woman,' said Swedenborg quietly ; ' noth- 
ing else ? Well, let the world judge so ; but why should you think 
so ?' 

" ' You see you never go to Church ; for years you have never been 
inside St. Mary's Church.' 

" ' Have you never read,' replied Swedenborg solemnly, ' that, where 
two or three' are gathered together in the Lord's name, there is His 
Church and meeting-place ? Do you believe that it is the steeple and 
copper roof which makes a holy place of it ? Do you believe that it 
is holy for any one else but him who has in his heart Christ's Church ? 
Do you believe that it is the walls, organ, and pulpit, which constitute 
its holiness ? ' 

" ' No, no ; I know that well enough.' 

" ' Well, then, here at home, in this room, in the arbor, in the gai'den, 
wherever a man or spirit lives within or without space and time, wher- 
ever a prayer is either thought or read, wherever a voice of thanks- 
giving is sent up to Him who is the Giver of all good, there is His 
Church ; and it is consequently here where I live sheltered from the 
world.' 

" Both the faithful servants bowed their heads and said, — ' But this 
is not the way of the world.' 

'"The way of the world, my friends?' replied Swedenborg, 'I 
suppose the way of the world is Christian, is it not ? ' 

" ' Yes, it is.' 

" ' In name it is, but not in spirit and in truth. Faith without works 
is a dead faith : a flower which does not live is nothing but lifeless 
dust ; and faith which does not live in every action of man is a dead 



STORY OF THE GARDENER. 399 

faith, — it is no faith at all. Here, my friends, see what this Christian 
world really does. They call, indeed, upon Him, the only Son, in 
their times of need, but they forget both His teaching and His life. 
Like an obstinate child who despises warning, they rush into all man- 
ner of lusts, into pride and wickedness, which are like a thin, frail 
covering over an abyss ; and over this yawning abyss they scoff at 
their teacher, and act foolishly and madly until this covering breaks. 
Then they call out for help, but in vain, for they have long since for- 
feited it ; sometimes they are dragged up again, but in their foolish 
pride they let go the Saving Hand, they spurn the healing repentance, 
and continue their course of vain talk and idle sport. So does the 
Christian world, and they think that all that is necessary for them is 
to have a priest to speak to them a few hours in the week about God 
and the Saviour; and they do not think that any more is required of 
them than to hear and to forget. They therefore believe that it is 
outward gesture, the singing of psalms, and the tones of the organ, 
together with the empty sound of recited prayers, which penetrate to 
the Lord in heaven. Truly when the people prostrate themselves in 
the churches, then it is the voice of a few only that penetrates to the 
Lord. 

" ' Let me tell you something. To-day there was a little child sitting 
in the street, a little blind girl, who folded her little hands upon her 
lap, and turned her darkened eyes towards heaven ; and when I saw 
her, and asked her, " What makes you look so happy, although you 
are blind ? " — the little girl said, " I am thinking of God, our Father, 
who will some day take me to Him, and show me all His splendor." 
Truly, my good people, it was only at the corner of the street that she 
sat, yet I took off my hat, and bowed my head, for I knew that God 
was near, and that this was a holy place. 

" ' No, there is a worm gnawing at the kernel of Christianity, al- 
though its shell is whole. Charity is the kernel, and the outward 
forms are the shell. Where do you see charity in this uncharitable 
world ? As long as violence prevails and rules, as long as selfishness 
and avarice oppress mankind, as long as earthly happiness is the goal 
which we endeavor to reach, so long the world is not Christian. But 
when men at all times and everywhere recognize that they are in God's 
Presence and under His eyes ; when each of their actions is the reflec- 
tion of His eternal love and of His example ; when their goal is, 
placed beyond the reach of time, and not here in the dust, — then only 
are men Christians. Do you know, my friends, what I have done ? 
Nothing else than what was formerly done in Palestine. When the 
Christians were on the point of giving way, then the standard was 
thrown beyond, as a goal for them to follow, and thither they pressed 
over to the other side, and as they rushed they conquered. So also 



400 HOME LIFE. 

have I set up the goal for mankind, not only for their thoughts, but 
also for their deeds, in another world, so as to let them know that it is 
not enough for them to gather themselves together, but they need also 
to struggle. Such, then, is my faith. If I believe more than others, I 
certainly do not believe less. And now, my friends, look back upon 
those thirty years during which you have followed me almost daily 
with your eyes, and then judge whether it is I or others who are 
Christian. Judge for yourselves. I submit myself to your judg- 
ment, and then do what you deem to be right.' 

" He beckoned with his hand and they went away ; and then quietly, 
as if nothing had happened, he continued his reading. 

" The next day they stood again, in their week-day clothes, in the 
presence of their master, who asked them with a friendly smile, — 
' Well, how did the examination turn out ? ' 

" ' Oh, master Assessor,' said both of them, 'we looked for a single 
word, for a single action, which was not in agreement with what the 
Lord had commanded us, yet we could not find a single one.' 

" ' Very well,' said Swedenborg ; ' but it is not quite so ; many 
thoughts have been, and many an action has been, not perfectly 
straight ; yet I have tried to do as well as I could. And as a child, 
who in the beginning spells out his words, and stumbles often before 
he can read, provided he goes to work lovingly and cheerfully and 
strives hard to do better, is loved by his father, so also it may have 
been with me ; at least I pray and hope that it may be so. But you 
will remain with me ? ' 

" ' Yes, master Assessor, until our death.' 

" ' Thank you, my friends ; I knew it would be so. Let people say 
what they please about my teachings, but do you judge them by my 
life : if they agree, then an is right ; but if there is the least disagree- 
ment between them, then one of the two must be wrong.' 

" When the little old woman had finished her story, which she had 
told after the manner of her people, by constantly repeating ' said the 
Assessor,' and 'said I,' her eyes were glistening with emotion, and she 
added, — ' God, indeed, must have forsaken us when He allowed us 
to go astray so far as to suspect our own Assessor of not being a 
Christian.' 

" The good old woman took us through the garden, which was 
decked in its greatest autumnal splendor, and was loaded with berries 
and fruits ; and as we were walking along, with a side glance at me, 
she said that the Assessor never allowed children in his garden ; 'but 
sometimes,' she added, 'he lets one or the other slip in, but not before 
he has looked at him and has said, — " Let the child pass, he will not 
take anything without leave," — and he has never made any mistake. 
This he sees from their eyes.' " 



LODGINGS IN LONDON. 4OI 

From these simple friends who made Swedenborg's home 
in Stockholm, let us turn to those who served him in a simi- 
lar way the last few months of his life in London. 

Richard Shearsmith, of Coldbath fields, was a respectable 
■wig-maker, with whom Swedenborg had lodged for some two 
years on his previous stay in London. On the arrival of the 
vessel in which he sailed from Holland in 1771, Swedenborg 
took a coach and directed the driver to Mr. Shearsmith's, 
Great Bath Street. Mr. Shearsmith was just going out on 
business, when helieard the foreigner's voice calling from the 
coach-window to the driver,— "Dat be he ! Dat be he ! " 
The coach was stopped, and Swedenborg was welcomed into 
the house. But when he told his errand, that he wished to 
renew his lodgings there, he learned that his rooms were then 
occupied by another family. Singularly enough, however, as 
soon as the family heard of Swedenborg's wish, they imme- 
diately made way for him, though without previous acquain- 
tance. It was a place that the old gentleman found himself 
at home in, for the reason that there was peace in the house. 
He had come upon it in the first instance when in search of 
a former landlord, who had left the neighborhood. Inquiring 
at another place he declined to lodge there, frankly saying 
that there was no harmony in the house. As frankly the 
good woman admitted the fact and recommended the Shear- 
smiths, where he himself, according to Mrs. Shearsmith, be- 
came "a blessing to the house, for they had harmony and 
good business while he was with them." Mr. Shearsmith at 
first was alarmed about his lodger, " by reason of his talking 
night and day," sometimes while writing, and sometimes 
standing in the door- way, as if holding a conversation with 
some one entering or departing. Here, as at home, " he had 
no particular regard for times or seasons, days or nights ; 
only taking rest when nature required it. He did not indulge 
in needless gratifications. He went not to any place of wor- 
ship during his abode with Mr. Shearsmith. He did not 
want money. . . . He lay some weeks in a trance, without 

26 



402 



HOME LIFE. 



any sustenance, and came to himself again. This was not 
long before his death. He seldom or never complained of 
any bodily pain, but was attacked before his death with a 
kind of paralytic stroke. . . . The dress that he generally 
wore when he went out to visit, was a suit of black velvet, 
made after an old fashion, a pair of long ruffles, a curious 
hilted sword, and a gold-headed cane. He ate little or no 
animal food, only a few eels sometimes. His chief sustenance 
was cakes, tea, and coffee made exceedingly sweet. His 
drink was water. He took a great deal of snuff. . . . His hair 
was not dark, but approaching to a pale auburn. His eyes 
were gray, approaching to brown. 1 He wore a wig, as was 
the custom of his time." Whether this description of his 
person is from Mr. Shearsmith, or from the lady who gives 
other particulars on his authority, is not clear, nor important. 

A certain professor of religion objected to Mr. Shearsmith 
that Swedenborg could not be a good Christian, because he 
did not pay particular attention to the Sabbath-day, forgetting 
altogether the day of the week, in his spiritual labors, and yet 
glad when reminded of it. To this Mr. Shearsmith replied, 
— "To a good man, like Swedenborg, every day of his life is 
a Sabbath." From the first day of his coming to reside at 
this house, " to the last day of his life, he always conducted 
himself in the most rational, prudent, pious, and Christian- 
like manner." 

It was near Christmas when Swedenborg had the paralytic 
stroke "which deprived him of his speech and occasioned 
his lying in a lethargic state for three weeks and upwards," 
during which he took no nourishment, but a little tea and 
cold water occasionally. Then "he recovered his speech 
and health a little, and ate toast and drank tea and coffee, as 
usual." From that time, however, he was visited by only a few 
friends and always seemed unwilling to see company. About 
a month before he died he told Mrs. Shearsmith on what 
particular day he should die. "About a fortnight or three 

1 Compare p. 341. 



THE LAST BREATH. 403 

weeks before he died, he received the sacrament in bed from 
the hands of a foreign clergyman, and enjoyed a sound mind, 
memory, and understanding to the last hour of his life." 
About five o'clock on Sunday, March 29, 1772, he asked 
the time. In expectation of the day he had been "pleased 
as if he were going to have a holiday, to go to some merry- 
making;" and now, when he learned the hour, he said, — 
"Dat be good, me tank you ; God bless you," — and in about 
ten minutes "he heaved a gentle sigh and expired in the 
most tranquil manner." 

We have already learned from his friends, Hartley, Messiter, 
and Ferelius, of the brief conversations Swedenborg held with 
them in these last days. There was then in London an emi- 
nent man, whose own life's work bore a strange and unknown 
relation to that of Swedenborg, and to whom Swedenborg 
sent a note, in the month of February, to the effect that he 
had been informed in the world of spirits of his desire to 
converse with him, and that he would be happy to see him if 
he would favor him with a visit. This note John Wesley 
received in company, and "frankly acknowledged that he had 
been very strongly impressed with a desire to see and con- 
verse with Swedenborg, and that he had never mentioned the 
desire to any one." He wrote in reply that he was then busily 
engaged in preparing for a six months' circuit, but would 
do himself the pleasure of waiting upon Swedenborg soon 
after his return to London. To this Swedenborg replied that 
the visit proposed would be too late, as he should go into the 
world of spirits on the 29th day of the next month, never 
more to return. Mr. Wesley left London on the first of 
March and was gone some months ; when he returned, it was 
quite too late to see Swedenborg. 

Friendly Swedes in London took charge of the funeral 
services, at which their pastor Ferelius officiated, and Swe- 
denborg's earthly remains were interred in a threefold coffin 
in the vault of the Swedish Church, in Prince's Square, 
Ratcliffe Highway, London. Could all have been gathered 



404 



HOME LIFE. 



together who at that day revered Swedenborg as their teacher 
and guide, the little Church might have held them, but the 
company would have been honorable in its intelligence and 
position and private worth. Could all be together who a 
hundred years later would have rejoiced to gather for such 
a testification of their love, there are single churches in the 
world that might perhaps have held them, though none that 
could begin to hold the followers of Wesley. A hundred 
years yet to come, we will not say that the relative numbers 
will be changed, but, while the growth of the New Jerusalem 
will be steadily advancing, we believe that throughout the 
Methodist Church, and all other Protestant Churches, the 
name of Swedenborg will be revered above that of all human 
teachers. 

On the 7th of October, after the death of Swedenborg, 
a Eulogy was pronounced upon him in the Great Hall of the 
House of Nobles, at Stockholm, in the name of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences, by Samuel Sandels, Counsellor of the 
Royal College of Mines, and member of the Academy. Of 
this Eulogy, we copy the following passages, using the trans- 
lation of R. L. Tafel : — 

"Gentlemen, — Allow me on the present occasion to direct your 
thoughts, not to a distant or wearisome subject, but to one which it is 
both a duty and a pleasure for us to consider ; namely, the memory of 
a noble man celebrated alike for his virtues and the depth of his 
knowledge, who was one of the oldest members of this academy, and 
whom we all knew and loved. 

" The feeling of affection and high esteem which we all entertained 
for the late Assessor of the Royal College of Mines, Emanuel 
Swedenborg, assures me that you will love to hear me speak of 
him ; and happy shall I be if I can fulfil your desire, and pronounce 
his eulogy as he deserves. But if, as artists declare, there are some 
countenances of which it is difficult to give an exact likeness, how 
much more difficult will it be to do justice to a vast and sublime 
genius, who never knew either repose or fatigue ; who, occupied with 
sciences the most profound, was long engaged with researches into 
the secrets of nature, but in later years applied all his efforts to un- 
veil still greater mysteries ; who, in respect to certain principles of 
knowledge, went his own separate way, but never lost sight of the 



SANDELS' EULOGY. 405 

principles of morality and the fear of God ; who was possessed of 
remarkable power, even in the decline of his age, and boldly tried to 
find how far the power of thought could be stretched ; and who, dur- 
ing the whole of this time, has furnished materials for a great variety 
of thoughts and judgments upon himself, differing from one another 
as much as do the faculties of the men who think and judge ; . . . 
who worked so unremittingly and so zealously in the cause of knowl- 
edge and enlightenment, that, with the single exception perhaps of his 
desire to penetrate too deeply, there is nothing whatever in his whole 
character with which we can find fault." 

After describing Swedenborg's parentage, his youth, his 
studies, his appointment by Charles XII., for his merits, to 
an important place while yet a young man, and his early 
publications, Sandels proceeds, — 

" We shall have now to follow him in many long journeys, under- 
taken for various purposes and pursuits, and at times in ways where it 
is easy to go astray ; and in order that in his society no doubt or un- 
certainty may arise in your minds, which often happens when one has 
not fully examined the character and disposition of another, picture 
to yourselves an harmonious development of memory, understanding, 
and judgment ; imagine these qualities united with an intense desire 
of the heart, which can only be satisfied by the ceaseless endeavor to 
become profoundly learned in philosophy, in almost all parts of math- 
ematics, in natural history, physics, chemistry, in anatomy, and even 
in theology, and to acquire proficiency in the Oriental and European 
languages ; keep in mind also the power of habit, which in a certain 
manner acts in accordance with reason, certainly in respect to the or- 
der of thought ; and remember that our thoughts when too much en- 
gaged with, and centred upon, abstract subjects, are wont to carry us 
away in the same direction, and sometimes too fast, — especially when 
accompanied with an ardent imagination, — so that we are unable 
properly to discriminate the objects that come before us. Add to all 
this a genuinely good disposition, proved by the Rules of Life which 
I found among Mr. Swedenborg's manuscripts in more than one place, 
and which he wrote down for his own use : First, diligently to read 
and meditate upon the Word of God ; Secondly, to be content under 
the dispensations of God's Providence ; Thirdly, to observe a propri- 
ety of behavior, and preserve the conscience pure ; Fourthly, to obey 
what is commanded, to attend faithfully to one's office and other duties, 
and in addition to make oneself useful to society in general. 

" Any one who says that I have here presented any other than the 
manifest and truthful features of Swedenborg's inner being, must be 



406 HOME LIFE. 

prejudiced either on the one side or on the other. Let such a one 
consider more closely what I have already said, and what I have still 
further to say." 

After dwelling at some length on his various labors in sci- 
ence, in engineering, in the duties of the College of Mines, 
and lastly in the publication of his Opera Philosophica, San- 
dels continues, — 

" The Consistory of the University and the Society of Sciences at 
Upsal felt proud at having previously recognized the merits of our 
countryman, and at having publicly testified the high esteem in which 
they held him; for the Consistory had, in 1724, invited him, 'for the 
advantage of youth, and as an ornament of the university/ to apply 
for the professorship of the higher mathematics, which had become 
vacant by the death of Professor Nils Celsius, but which invitation he 
thankfully declined ; and the Society of Sciences had admitted him 
into the number of its members in 1729. The learned abroad also 
hastened to send him marks of their esteem. The Academy of Sci- 
ences of St. Petersburg by a letter of invitation, dated December 17, 
1734, desired to admit him among its corresponding members. Chris- 
tian Wolff, and other foreign men of learning, addressed him by letter, 
in order to obtain his ideas on subjects which they found it difficult to 
fathom. The editors of the Acta Eruditorum in Leipsic, in which the 
contents of the works of the learned are discussed, and impartial 
opinions pronounced upon them, found in his work a rich store with 
which to adorn their pages. Nor has time deprived this work of any 
of its value. The authors of the magnificent Descriptions des Arts et 
Metiers, which is now in course of publication in France, thought so 
highly of that part of the Opera Philosophica et Mineralia which 
covers the same ground as their own publication, that they translated 
the second part, which treats of iron and steel, and inserted it entire 
in their collection. Our Royal Academy, also, when it was founded, 
hastened to enroll among its first members a man who already held 
so distinguished a rank in other learned societies. 

" I have hitherto spoken only of one part of Swedenborg's works ; 
but the others take a different direction. Let us therefore dwell a 
little longer on the former. These works are unmistakably proofs 
that his desire for learning extended in all directions, and that he by 
preference occupied himself with studies which cannot be mastered 
without mature judgment and profound thought. No one can charge 
him with having wished to shine in borrowed plumes, or with re- 
arranging and giving a different coloring to the work of others, and 
then publishing it under his own name ; for everywhere we perceive 



SANDELS' EULOGY. ' 407 

that he did not depend upon others, but followed his own thoughts, 
and often made observations and applications which cannot be found 
in any other author of his times. Nor can he, like the majority of 
those who make it a point to acquire encyclopoedic knowledge, be 
charged with having remained on the surface only; for he applied his 
whole strength in attempting to fathom the inmost recesses of things, 
and to connect together the various links into one universal chain, 
and show their derivation in a certain order from their first origin. 
Neither can he be accused by any one of having, like other mathema- 
ticians and physicists, made use of the light he discovered during his re- 
searches, to hide from himself and others, and, if possible, to extinguish 
the greatest light of all ; for, in his constant meditations on the work 
of creation, he continually found reasons for acknowledging and ador- 
ing the Lord of nature. . . . 

" I am perhaps not mistaken in believing that, from the time when 
our Swedenborg began to build his thoughts upon his own ground, he 
cherished a hidden fire to fathom the most secret things, and that, 
even then, he was seeking for ways by which to reach his object ; at 
least, a comparison of his earlier with his later works, although they 
treat on different subjects, leads us to think so. He looked upon the 
universe at large in the same light as he looked upon its parts, which 
can be examined with greater certainty. He saw that all is ruled 
simultaneously in a certain order, and according to fixed laws. He 
paid particular attention to those parts of this great system which 
can be examined mathematically. He therefore imagined that the 
all-wise Creator had brought everything, even in its hidden parts, into 
a certain mutual agreement, and this agreement he sought to bring 
out in his capacity of mathematician and physicist, by advancing 
from the less to the greater, and from that which may be distinguished 
by the naked eye to that which requires the aid of the magnifying 
glass. And, finally, he developed for himself a complete system, 
based upon a certain mechanism, and supported by logic; a system 
which is so carefully constructed that there is much in it, in many re- 
spects, for the learned to reflect upon. As to the unlettered, they had 
better not meddle with it. . . . 

" But he went still further. He desired to combine this system 
with the doctrine of salvation. With this we find him occupied 
during most of the time after he had published his Opera Philosophica 
et Mineralia. 

" I cannot help being filled with astonishment, in reflecting upon his 
extraordinary industry; for besides numerous treatises, and among 
them the great work I have already mentioned, he was the author of 
the following works [here follows a list of Swedenborg's anatomical 
and theological works]. 



408 home life. 

" The titles of all these works point out lofty themes ; and al- 
though they treat of different subjects, and follow different lines of 
argument, being based upon anatomy, physics, and philosophy, upon 
explanations of the Sacred Scriptures and, according to his own 
statement, upon revelations, still, owing to his way of treating them, 
they all lead to meditations on the Supreme Being, the human soul, 
with other invisible and spiritual things, and the life after death. . . . 

" If I were called upon frankly to state his faults, I should imagine 
to myself some one who devoted his whole time to the preparation of 
a universal solvent, — a menstruum which would solve everything that 
either nature or art had produced, without remembering that no vessel 
could preserve it. Our Swedenborg was not satisfied with knowing 
much ; he desired to know more than can be comprehended by any 
man here below, in that state of imperfection which belongs to him 
while the soul dwells in a frail material body. Any one who con- 
demns this fault cannot be regarded as impartial, so long as he does 
not first inveigh against those who ought to know much, and yet who 
know nothing. But it is not so easy to be displeased with a man 
who was endowed with so many fine qualities. 

" He had a sincere love for mankind ; and, in examining the dis- 
position of others, he always endeavored first to find this virtue, as a 
sure indication of many good qualities besides. He was cheerful and 
pleasant in company, and, as a recreation from his severe labors, he 
enjoyed intercourse with intelligent persons, by whom he was always 
well received and much respected. He could also properly meet, and 
playfully direct into a different channel, that kind of curiosity which 
frequently desires to obtrude itself into the consideration of serious 
things. . . . Our Swedenborg, — and this I mention not as one of 
his merits, — remained during the whole of his life unmarried. But 
this was not owing to any indifference to the sex, for he esteemed 
the company of a fine and intelligent woman as one of the purest 
sources of delight ; but his profound studies required that in his 
house there should be perfect stillness both day and night. He there- 
fore preferred being alone. 

" He enjoyed a most excellent state of bodily health, having scarce- 
ly ever been indisposed ; and, as he was always content within him- 
self and with his circumstances, he spent a life which was in every 
respect happy, nay, which was happy in the highest degree. At last 
nature demanded her rights. During his last sojourn abroad, while 
residing in London, he had on December 24th of last year, an attack 
of apoplexy, and on the 29th of last March departed this life, in his 
eighty-fifth year, rich in the honorable monuments which he left be- 
hind him, satisfied with his life upon earth, and joyful at the prospect 
of his final change." 



HAPPINESS. 



409 



Let us take for our last look at the lonely old man his own 
pictures of happiness. In his philosophical argument on the 
Infinite he had said, — 

" Inasmuch as the soul is formed and prepared in the 
mortal body for an immortal state, so we men are in this 
respect the happiest beings in the world, or else the un- 
happiest; for those who are unhappy, are more unhappy 
than the brutes, whose souls are extinguished, and their life 
annihilated, when they perish. Christians again may be still 
more happy, or still more unhappy ; for they possess a knowl- 
edge well calculated to lead to faith, and to comparative 
distinctness and fulness thereof : yet those of them who are 
unhappy, are more unhappy than the Gentiles to whom no 
such knowledge has been granted. Those Christians again 
who are learned in the Divine law, the prelates and doctors 
of the Church, are still more happy, or unhappy ; for those 
of them who are unhappy, are more unhappy than the rudest 
members of the Christian commonalty, however defective in 
learning and poor in knowledge and enlightenment. Among 
the skilful interpreters of the Divine law, they again are hap- 
pier still who have the faculty to engraft reason upon reve- 
lation, and to make use of both as means to a knowledge of 
the things conducing to faith ; that is to say, they who are 
Christian philosophers, who, if unhappy, are more unhappy 
than those who have obtained their knowledge from revela- 
lation alone. For, the more knowledge we possess, the 
more there is to make us happy, and the more to make us 
unhappy. Hence the Christian philosopher may be the hap- 
piest or the unhappiest of mortals" (p. 149). 

Again, after his spiritual experience had been opened to 
him for some years, he wrote, — 

" Some think that he who is in faith must put away all en- 
joyments of life and pleasures of the body ; but this I can 
testify, that by no means have there been denied to me, but 
have been granted, not only the pleasures of the body and of 
the senses, such as are granted to other mortals, but also en- 



410 HOME LIFE. 

joyments of life and happiness such as, I think, have been 
given to no others in the whole world, — greater and more 
exquisite than any mortal can imagine, or in any way be- 
lieve." (S. D. 3623). 

Would we inquire further what this happiness might be, we 
may turn back to what we have read of the peace of the 
Benediction. 1 We may read what he says of the sweetness 
of the heavenly perception that one does not think from him- 
self. " It was suddenly given me to perceive the sweetness 
of the angels which they perceive from this, that they do 
not think from themselves, and consequently do not speak 
and act from themselves ; for, from this is quiet and con- 
fidence, and very many enjoyments therefrom." (S. D. 
2870). 

What, then, must have been the sweetness, the quiet, the 
confidence, and the happiness of him who was permitted for 
near thirty years to perceive that he thought and wrote, not 
from himself, but from the Lord ! What is this but a fore- 
running fulfilment of that coming of the Lord described in 
John as the coming of the Comforter, even the Spirit of 
Truth, which should guide into all truth? 

Let it be granted that this prophecy was for the whole 
Church, and, in addition to its first miraculous but temporary 
fulfilment with the Apostles, is to have a final permanent ful- 
filment. Let it be granted that the prophecy of the coming 
in judgment in the clouds of heaven is also a spiritual com- 
ing, and may be expected at the same time. Svvedenborg's 
explanation follows, that the one is the consequence of the 
other ; that the admission of the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, 
into the heart, throws that flood of light into the understand- 
ing by which He stands revealed, even in the clouds of the 
letter of His Word, and perforce executes a judgment on 
whatever stands in His Presence. 

This seen to be the truth, it remains to read with patience 
and heavenly desire what Swedenborg has written, from his 

1 Page 237. 



TUXEN. 41 1 

illustration, in explanation of this Word, and to see whether 
or no this explanation shines with Divine light in our own 
minds. If so, we know well whence it comes. And if not, 
let us not judge hastily, let us wait ; perchance the fault is 
yet our own. New ideas, especially ideas involving a new 
world within and above that to which we are accustomed, are 
not presumably to be received at first glance, or without 
deep thought and elevation of mind. Herein lies the test. 
Only in our highest, most interior state, when nearest in 
heart to God and His heaven, should we undertake to con- 
clude concerning what professes to come from Him, and 
then only by comparison with His Word. Conclusions then 
formed, and then alone, may be trusted. Many readers, too, 
will sympathize with these words of Svvedenborg's friend, 
General Tuxen : — 

" I confess that when I first began to read his works and 
just cast my eye on the following passage, that ' a horse sig- 
nifies the understanding of the Word,' I found myself, as it 
were, repelled and not very well pleased ; but afterwards, 
when I read his works in series from the beginning, and with 
attention, though I found many things which surpassed my 
understanding and knowledge, yet happily I recollected at 
the same time the answer of Socrates to the other Athenian 
philosophers, who asked his opinion on the writings of He- 
raclitus, — That he did not understand them everywhere, but 
what he did imder stand was so excellent and good, that he 
did not doubt but the rest, which he understood not, was 
equally so. This encouraged me to read more and more, 
and what I understood I found for my advantage ; and it 
appears to me that no system of divinity is more worthy of 
the dignity of God, or more consolatory to man." 

Some, though finding the doctrines set forth by Sweden- 
borg eminently rational, find great difficulty in believing that 
his spiritual sight could be opened while he yet remained in 
this world. Such, probably, have not become familiar with 
the idea, old as the world, but for a time well-nigh lost, that 



412 HOME LIFE. 

the spirit-world is all around us and very near, and that the 
passage into it is but the opening of a door. Let them, for 
encouragement, call to mind the good old story of our 
heathen ancestors : — 

" In the year 626 of our era, when Edwin, the Anglo-Saxon king, 
was deliberating on receiving the Christian missionaries, one of his 
nobles said to him : ' The present life of man, O King, compared with 
that space of time beyond, of which we have no certainty, reminds 
me of one of your winter feasts, where you sit with your generals and 
your ministers. The hearth blazes in the middle, and a grateful heat 
is spread around, while storms of rain and snow are raging without. 
Driven by the chilling tempest, a little sparrow enters at one door, 
and flies delighted around us till it departs through the other. Whilst 
it stays in our mansion, it feels not the winter storm ; but when this 
short moment of happiness has been enjoyed, it is forced again into 
the same dreary tempest from which it had escaped, and we behold it 
no more. Such is the life of man, and we are as ignorant of the state 
which preceded our present existence as of that which will follow 
it. Things being so, I feel that if this new faith can give us more 
certainty, it deserves to be received." 

Mr. Emerson, who fitly quotes the above at the opening 
of his Essay on Immortality, observes a marked change of 
current sentiment in regard to the other life during this cen- 
tury, which he attributes to the influence of Swedenborg's 
teachings. Mr. Coleridge wrote, in April, 1827, — 

" I have often thought of writing a work to be entitled . . . ' Vin- 
dication of Great Men unjustly branded ; ' and at such times the 
names prominent to my mind's eye have been Giordano Bruno, Jacob 
Bohme, Benedict Spinoza, and Emanuel Swedenborg. Grant, that the 
origin of the Swedenborgian theology is a problem ; yet, on which- 
ever of the three possible hypotheses (possible, I mean, for gentle- 
men, scholars, and Christians) 1 it may be solved, — namely: I. Swe- 

1 " Si, dans les generations contemporaines et epigones, il ne s'est pas 
trouve une voix serieuse qui eut voulu se compromettre, en osant accuser de 
tromperie un homme dont l'honnetcte etait evidente et le sens inattaquable, 
comment aurait on ce courage aujourd'hui ? " [Matter : p. 70.] Matter 
cites the familiar visions of Descartes, Antoinette Bourignon, Madame Guyon, 
and other mystics, as preparing the way for belief in Swedenborg's spiritual 
sight. It was a time for signs and visions, when the power of light and the 
power of darkness were contending for the control of mankind. 



COLERIDGE. 413 

denborg's own assertion and constant belief in the hypothesis of a 
supernatural illumination ; or, 2. That the great and excellent man 
was led into this belief by becoming the subject of a very rare, but 
not (it is said) altogether unique, conjunction of the somniative faculty 
(by which the products of the understanding, that is to say, words, 
conceptions, and the like, are rendered instantaneously into forms of 
sense) with the voluntary and other powers of the waking state ; or, 3. 
The modest suggestion that the first and the second may not be so in- 
compatible as they appear,— still it ought never to be forgotten that 
the merit and value of Swedenborg's system do only in a very second- 
ary degree depend on any one of the three. For, even though the 
first were not adopted, the conviction and conversion of such a believer 
must, according to a fundamental principle of the New Church, have 
been wrought by an insight into the intrinsic truth and goodness of 
the doctrines, severally and collectively, and their entire consonance 
with the light of the written and of the eternal Word, that is, with the 
Scriptures and with the sciential and the practical reason. Or say 
that the secret hypothesis were preferred, and that by some hitherto 
unexplained affection of Swedenborg's brain and nervous system, he 
from the year 1745 thought and reasoned through the medium and in- 
strumentality of a series of appropriate and symbolic visual and 
auditual images, spontaneously rising before him, and these so clear 
and distinct as at length to overpower, perhaps, his first suspicions of 
their subjective nature, and to become objective for him, that is, in 
his own belief of their kind and origin, — still the thoughts, the rea- 
sonings, the grounds, the deductions, the facts illustrative, or in proof, 
and the conclusions, remain the same ; and the reader might derive 
the same benefit from them as from the sublime and impressive truths 
conveyed in the Vision of Mirza or the Tablet of Cebes. So much 
even from a very partial acquaintance with the works of Swedenborg, 
I can venture to assert, — that as a naturalist, psychologist, and theo- 
logian, he has strong and varied claims on the gratitude and admir- 
ation of the professional and philosophical student." 1 

To most readers of Swedenborg the simplest way, by far, 
is to believe that Swedenborg saw just what he thought he 
did, with the eyes that were surely to be opened a few years 
later, and might, for the Lord's good purpose, be opened be- 
fore those of the body were closed. But for those persons 
to whom this seems too miraculous for belief, we give Mr. 
Coleridge's alternative, earnest that none should be precluded 

1 S. T. Coleridge : Literary Remains, p. 422. 



414 HOME LIFE. 

by the visions from gaining what good they can from the 
doctrines and interpretations of Scripture. At all events it 
may be said to them in the words of Matter, — 

" The greatness of Socrates remains, whether his daemon be a poetic 
fiction or a hallucination. It is the same with Swedenborg. His 
greatness, — I mean his thought, — remains, whether his character as 
medium chosen of God to serve as an organ and interpreter of the 
Word of God with men, be a pious fiction, or the most sincere illusion, 
[or, let us add, the very truth]. His doctrine, so completely set forth 
in his writings, has its value in itself ; independent of the visions cited 
in its support, it is given in the sacred texts therein contained. Every 
man of sense may do what Count Hopken did, — take the doctrine, and 
let alone the visions. The true question for everybody is this : has 
Swedenborg interpreted the Holy Scriptures better than the eighteen 
centuries which preceded him ? The affirmative would not prove the 
mission which he claims, but it would be a great prepossession in its 
favor. The negative destroys his mission, but it leaves intact his 
doctrine and his work." 1 

In our study of Emanuel Swedenborg we have found such 
penetration and training of mind, such industry and devotion 
to truth, such store of wisdom, such integrity of character, 
such piety and benevolence of heart, such spirituality and 
humility towards God, that we may ask whether, if the Lord 
needed a man through whom to make known the mysteries 
of His Word and of His kingdom, He ever made one more 
fit for the purpose. We have seen that the amount and 
scope of these revelations through Swedenborg are fairly com- 
mensurate with their subject. By specimens, we have seen 
that in elevation and dignity they are not unworthy of it. 
And we have seen that for thirty years their author, while 
he found but few humble souls fully prepared to appreciate 
and accept the new doctrines he was bringing down out of 
heaven, yet found none to gainsay them in his presence ; 
but, wherever he went, among the learned or the unlettered, 
in humble tenement or in kings' courts, all hung upon his 
lips, in silent reverence at the strange mysteries that fell from 
them, or rejoiced in heart by their kindly cheer. As in 

1 M. Matter : Swedenborg, sa vie, etc., p. 73. 



EFFECTS OF MISSION. 



415 



his infancy, so again in his age, it was perceived that angels 
spake with him and through him to men. It may in part 
reconcile us of English-speaking race to the strangeness of 
revelations coming to us through Scandinavian stock, 1 that 
communication from the other world was not so strange to 
the men of Sweden as to those of busy London, and that, 
as Danieli says, there was in the family a tendency to re- 
ceiving strange thoughts, not their own. Yet in the religious 
freedom of England Swedenborg found the best soil for 
planting his heaven-fetched seed, the Doctrines of the New 
Jerusalem ; and in Great Britain and America the seed has 
as yet taken deepest root and borne the most fruit. 

Not however by numbers of professed adherents, at the 
present or at any time, is the magnitude of the work effected 
through Swedenborg to be measured. This work was but a 
part, inseparable and indispensable, of the vast work of over- 
coming and dispersing the power of Babylon and of the 
Dragon, of freeing the souls of men here and in the world 
of spirits, of again restoring order in the spirit-world as it 
was restored at our Lord's first coming, and of causing Him- 
self again to be present with men, visible in His Word, felt 
at the door of the heart, and everywhere recognized in His 
Providence. As this work goes on, — and who cannot see 
that it has been for a century begun ? — it may be difficult to 
take the full measure of Swedenborg's instrumentality. Nor 
is this a matter of great importance. 2 It is sufficient that we 
recognize in his works the help given us by the Lord to take 
our part in the labor, and to receive our share of the blessing. 
Everywhere let us seek to see the promised coming of our 
Lord in His nearer Presence with our fellow-men, in their 
fuller recognition of Him in His Word and in their hearts, 
whether or not they are conscious of the help that has been 

1 Sweden was early the stronghold of Protestantism. "Soon after (1630) 
Gustavus Adolphus crossed the Baltic, and saved Europe from an impending 
reign of the Jesuits. . . . The rescue of Germany was the work of the Swedish 
King." Bryce : Holy Roman Empire, p. 336. 2 Appendix XII. 



41 6 HOME LIFE. 

given to this freedom and clearness of the spiritual atmos- 
phere by the enlightenment from the Lord of the mind of 
Emanuel Swedenborg. 

We prefaced our book with referring to the increasing re- 
cognition, among Christian students, of Swedenborg as a 
pioneer of the advanced theology fast finding its way into the 
thought of the Churches. We have endeavored to aid this 
recognition to take another step, and to acknowledge all that 
has come through Swedenborg as coming, not from the man, 
but through him from the Lord Jesus, in His new coming to 
His people. 

In conclusion, let us take in this sense, giving God the 
praise, such acknowledgments as the following, now thick- 
ening about us : — 

" While Wesley was made the mediator of a new moral 
force flowing out of Christianity, Emanuel Swedenborg be- 
came the organ of a new spiritual philosophy, the power of 
which is hardly yet understood, but which seems likely to 
leaven all religious thought, and change all arbitrary theolo- 
gies into a spiritual rationalism. But Swedenborg did not go 
out of Christianity to find his ideas. Like George Fox and 
John Wesley, he found them in Christ." x 

"The most remarkable step in the religious history of re- 
cent ages is that made by the genius of Swedenborg. . . . 
These truths, passing out of his system into general circulation, 
are now met with every day, qualifying the views and creeds 
of all churches, and of men of no church." 2 

11 Swedenborgianism has done the liberating work of the 
last century. . . . The wave Swedenborg started lasts to this 
day. . . . The statements of Swedenborg's religious works 
have revolutionized theology." 3 

1 Rev. James Freeman Clarke. 

2 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

3 Rev. E. E. Hale, in a recent lecture. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX, 



I. — Page i. 

The famous Bull Unigenitus was issued at the instigation of 
the Jesuits. As a means for its enforcement, the Jesuit clergy in 
France resolved that notes should be obtained of dying persons, 
that these notes should be signed by priests who maintained the 
authority of the Bull, and that without such notes no person 
should receive the last sacraments of the Church. Among other 
things this Bull denounced as false, blasphemous, heretical, and 
reprobate the following propositions, which had been published 
by Father Ouesnel, a Jansenist, with his New Testament: — 

"That it is useful and necessary for all persons to know the 
Scriptures. 

"That the reading of the Scriptures is for everybody. 

"That the sacred obscurity of the Word of God is no reason 
for the laity to excuse themselves from reading it. 

"That the Lord's day ought to be sanctified by Christians, in 
reading pious books and, above all, the Scriptures. 

"That it is a great mistake to imagine that the knowledge of 
the mysteries of religion ought not to be imparted to women, by 
the reading of the Sacred Books. 

" That to wrest the New Testament out of the hands of Chris- 
tians, is to keep it closed up, by taking from them the means of 
understanding it, — is no other than to close up the mouth of 
Christ as to them. 

"That to forbid to Christians the reading of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, especially of the Gospel, is no other than to forbid the use 
of light to the children of light. 

"That to deprive the unlearned people of the comfort of join- 
ing their voices with the voice of the whole Church, is a custom 
contrary to apostolical practice and to the design of God." 



42 o 



APPENDIX. 



II. — Page i. 

Mademoiselle Bourignon, born and bred a Roman Catho- 
lic in the 17th century, was keenly alive to the state of the 
Church. In The Light of the World, published in England in 
1696, and giving a report of her conversations, it is said : — 

"I asked her if she firmly believed that the last times were 
come; and whether the judgment approached. 

" She said to me : Believe me, Sir, there is nothing more true ; 
we actually live in the last times ; and the judgment is so near, 
that before three years I believe you will see the effects of it. 
. . . We may see by the lives of men now, that all the signs 
are fallen out which Jesus Christ has foretold, namely, that iniqui- 
ty shall be multiplied, and charity in many shall wax cold, and so 
of the rest. . . . The life of men is the open book in which these 
truths are written, and the Holy Scriptures are the equitable 
Judge which pronounces the sentence. Read, Sir, with atten- 
tion, they will deliver you from the difficulty you find in believ- 
ing this ; for though indeed they do not determine precisely the 
day of judgment, yet they will make you see sufficiently that the 
chief signs which must precede it do already appear. . . . Truth, 
which is the true Sun of Righteousness, cannot any longer ap- 
pear openly ; it is become black and hateful to all the world, who, 
desiring to be flattered and praised, cannot hear the truth, be- 
cause it reproves the falsehood which now prevails. ... I 
entreat you to read attentively the 24th chapter of St. Matthew; 
it speaks of the present time. All the Parables do the same. I 
wish I had time and leisure to explain them to you ; you would 
see as well as I that the judgment approaches, for all the fore- 
running signs are already come. People do not perceive them, 
for want of reflecting seriously enough on the Holy Scriptures, 
or upon the inward life of men now-a-days : they amuse them- 
selves with regarding only their outward piety, imagining that 
there are yet a great many good men, because they appear such; 
but before God all are corrupted. . . . Many souls will be de- 
ceived at death, who in their lifetime presumed they were true 
Christians, while in the sight of God they will be worse than 
heathens. Such is the blindness wherein we live at present, in 
which nobody makes a right judgment of himself, or of others, 
every one presuming to be saved without good works ; whereas 



APPENDIX. 42 1 

no works can be good if they do not proceed from charity, 
which is at present banished from the hearts of all men; for 
which cause there are no more perfect Christians upon earth, for 
the Christian life is all charity, and the love of God, which is no 
longer in use. . . . There has been no longer charity upon 
earth, Sir, since Christians left the Gospel simplicity ; from that 
time charity began to wax cold ; and when the Church would 
needs establish herself in pomp, riches, and magnificence, this 
outward splendor has utterly destroyed the spirit of the Gospel. 
Studies have banished the Holy Spirit, and the learning of men 
has stifled the wisdom of God" (p. 19). 

Father Lambert, a Jansenist, wrote somewhat later, — 

"In examining with a good faith the different characteristics 
which, in the Apocalypse, the woman who is a harlot presents, it 
is very difficult not to recognize under this emblem the city of 
Rome. . . . There is then every reason to believe that the holy 
Apostle, in casting his eyes forward to the future, which was 
still separated from him by an interval of so many ages, shows 
us a Christian city; but which will then be depraved, cor- 
rupted, laden with iniquities, making religion subservient to her 
pride, her domination, her avarice ; and which will merit from 
God the outpouring upon her of the cup of His wrath." 1 

In illustration of the proud domination here referred to, wit- 
ness the declarations by Leo the Great that he possessed, as the 
Head of the Church and by participation, the power of Christ, 
and that as such he was the head of a Church whose top 
reached unto heaven ; by Count de Maistre, that the Sovereign 
Pontiff is "the necessary, the only, the exclusive basis of Chris- 
tianity;" by Cornelius a Lapide, that "the Pope, as being the 
vicar of God, represents God;" by Dionysius, that the One seen 
by John sitting on the throne (Rev. iv.) is the Pope; by Alca- 
sar, that "the Pope as the vicar of Christ is in a manner Christ 
Himself," and that "the priests of the Church have a power 
more sublime than the very seraphim themselves, and one which 
is especially proper to God; " by St. Bernard, that their order is 
"preferred before angels, archangels, thrones, and dominations ;" 
and by the Rhemish Testament, " The Father gave all power to 
the Son; but I see the same power altogether delivered by the 
Son unto them" — the priests. 

1 Exposition of the Prophecies and Promises made to the Church, ii. 327. 



422 APPENDIX. 



III. — Page 7. 

Dr. Watts had said, in his treatise on the Improvement of 
the Mind, — 

"Nor should a student in Divinity imagine that our age is 
arrived at a full understanding of everything which can be 
known by the Scriptures. Every age since the Reformation 
hath thrown some further light on difficult texts and paragraphs 
of the Bible, which have been long obscured by the early rise 
of Antichrist ; and since there are at present many difficulties 
and darknesses hanging about certain truths of the Christian 
religion ; and since several of these relate to important doc- 
trines, such as the origin of sin. the fall of Adam, the Person of 
Christ, the blessed Trinity, the decrees of God, etc., which do 
still embarrass the minds of honest and inquiring readers, and 
which make work for noisy controversy, — it is certain there are 
several things in the Bible yet unknown, and not sufficiently 
explained ; and it is certain there is some way to solve these 
difficulties, and to reconcile these seeming contradictions. And 
why may not a sincere searcher of truth, in the present age, by 
labor, diligence, study, and prayer, with the best use of his rea- 
soning powers, find out the proper solution of these knots and 
perplexities, which have hitherto been unsolved, and which have 
afforded matter for angry quarrelling? Happy is the man who 
shall be favored of Heaven to give a helping hand towards the 
introduction of the blessed age of light and love." 

In what manner Swedenborg was thus favored, the body of 
this book should show. But independently of his labors, and in 
wholly different manner, other men have been at work, and have 
been favored, from the time of Bengel till now. 

Philip Matthias Hahn (died 1790) said, "I regard this the 
true spirit of Christianity, — when every word of God in the 
Old and in the New Testament is sweet, important, and dear ; 
and when we find therein no favorite truths, but everything is 
good and agreeable to us, because it is connected with the rest." 

Johann Gottfried von Herder (died 1803) said, "It is certainly 
a fine thread which pervades the Old and New Testaments, 
especially in those passages where symbol and fact, history and 
poetry, mingle together. Rough hands can seldom follow it, 
much less unravel it, without breaking or tangling it, or without 



APPENDIX. 423 

injuring either the poetry or history which, knitting themselves 
into it, constitute it a complete unity. It is truly said, 'To ex- 
plain belongs to God,' or to that man on whom there rests the 
spirit of the gods, the genius of all ages, and, so to speak, the 
childhood of the human race." 

And aeain, " In order to be assisted, the revelation of God, as 
found in the Bible, and even in the entire history of the human 
race, must be believed, and thus ever return to the great centre 
about which everything revolves and clusters — Jesus Christ, the 
Corner-stone and inheritance, the greatest messenger, teacher, 
and person of the Archetype." 

Hagenbach says, "The study of the Bible in the last decades 
has gained not only in impartiality, but in freshness and interest. 
How very different are a Pauline epistle and the Gospel of John 
now explained at the universities from what they were a quarter 
of a century ago? . . . There is no more a disposition to explain 
meagrely the written letter, but to penetrate the inmost depths 
of the Biblical writer's soul and by them to understand him." 

Dr. Dorner says, "The extension of vision in modern theolo- 
gy to the entire history and philosophy of religion, has already 
produced not only new problems, but brilliant and fruitful re- 
sults, profitable not only to the theology of the New Testament, 
but also to the elucidation and confirmation of Christianity itself. 
. . . The entire Old Testament and its religion is beginning to 
be treated ... as one great prophecy, a rich compensation for 
those individual prophecies which had to be given up as exegeti- 
cally untenable." x 

The Rev. Andrew Jukes says, "The types of Genesis fore- 
shadow God's great dispensational purposes respecting man's 
development; showing in mystery His secret will and way re- 
specting the different successive dispensations. The types of 
Exodus bring out, as their characteristic, redemption and its con- 
sequences; a chosen people are here redeemed out of bondage, 
and brought into a place of nearness to God. Leviticus again 
differs from each of these, dealing, I think I may say solely, 
in types connected with access to God. Numbers and Joshua 
are again perfectly different, the one giving us types connected 
with our pilgrimage as in the wilderness ; the other, types of our 
place as over Jordan, — that is, as dead and risen with Christ." 
1 History of Protestant Theology, ii. 443, 



424 APPENDIX. 

And further, speaking of the types of Leviticus, — "Though 
Christ in His work is the sum and substance of these types, it is 
Christ as discerned by one who already knows the certainty of 
redemption ; it is Christ as seen by one who, possessing peace 
with God and deliverance, is able to look with joy at all that 
Christ has so fully been for him. . . . Exodus gives us the blood 
of the Lamb, saving Israel in the land of Egypt. Leviticus 
gives us the priest and the offerings, m(*Pting Israel's need in 
their access to Jehovah." x 

IV. — Page 7. 

Fichte, first after Swedenborg, sought a philosophic reason 
for the Incarnation: — 

"Mankind is by the exertion of its freedom to destroy an an- 
tagonistic condition, and to form itself into a kingdom of God, 
into a world in which God alone is the principle of all activity, 
and in which nothing is done without Him from whom all human 
freedom proceeds,- and to whom it is surrendered. This must 
indeed take place in detail through each individual, and that 
power of freedom which determines him. But for this purpose 
there was needed an example of this determination to self-immo- 
lation and self-surrender. Whence was mankind to have this? 
It could only have it by means of a previously possessed freedom, 
and yet in its present state it can only obtain freedom by means 
of this example. Thus a circle arises : freedom presupposes the 
example, the example presupposes freedom. This circle is only 
to be abolished by the fact that the example should once be actual 
reality, absolutely original, beginning from the very roots, and 
realizing itself in a person. Now this did take place in fesus. 
He is unique through His originality. A 11 who enter the king- 
dom of heaven attain it only through Hi?n, through the exam- 
ple which He sets up in Himself for the whole race; for all are 
to be born again through Him, while He is the first a?id the first- 
born Son. Thus does Fichte endeavor to infer from an a fjriori 
law the necessity of the Person of Jesus." 2 

So also, later, says Dr. Dorner himself, — 

"The form and contents of Revelation only attain their con- 
summation in the Divine Incarnation, and in such a way that 

1 The Law of the Offerings. 

2 Dr. Dorner : History of Protestant Theology, ii. 339. 



APPENDIX. 



425 



the consummation of Divine Revelation in itself becomes also 
the consummation of religion, and therewith of humanity. This 
perfective process is carried into effect first of all in One who, as 
absolute God-man, is both the Revealer in the absolute sense 
and the Man embodying God's perfect image, while at the same 
time bringing about the consummation of the world. 

"The meaning of the text is, that neither the form nor the 
content of Revelatrtm attains its perfection and the goal which 
Revelation cannot but propose to itself, until it has passed into 
Incarnation. On God's side, the purpose of His love from the 
beginning is perfect self-communication; the form and contents 
of Revelation. . . . The most perfect organ of Revelation can 
only be the man who, from the first moment of his existence, in 
his entire person lives in a sphere of being pertaining to Reve- 
lation and never separated from God. But in the circumstance 
of his entire person being made an organ of Revelation, is given 
at once in inseparable unity external as well as internal revela- 
tion and the completion of both. For now the Divine life itself 
enters into a human life ; it assumes a shape that embodies and 
manifests the Divine life in human form, and is therefore Divine- 
human. In the God-man the inner spiritual miracle is so united 
with the outer world-reality, that the union of the Divine and 
human life, implied in the idea of inspiration without measure, 
forms a man who in the midst of the world is a personal 
miracle, — the God-man who, possessed of absolute worth in 
himself, fully answers to the communicating will of Divine love, 
and is withal destined both in himself to give perfect expression 
to human nature, and outside himself to consummate human 
nature." 1 

The views of Dr. Dorner are not precisely those of Sweden- 
borg, whom he treats with respect, but without accepting his 
direct antagonism to Calvinism. Dr. D. is the greatest expo- 
nent of the effort in this new age to find a philosophic basis and 
interpretation of the old Christian theology; and the approach to 
the doctrines of Swedenborg is a sign of the times. 

V. — Page n. 

"The history of the English Deists of the eighteenth century 
is indeed a very singular one. At a time when the spirit of the 
1 Dr. Dorner: A System of Christian Doctrine, ii. 205. 



426 APPENDIX. 

theology of the Church was eminently rationalistic, they were 
generally repudiated, and by the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury they had already fallen into neglect. ... A latent scepti- 
cism and a wide-spread indifference might be everywhere traced 
among the educated classes. There was a common opinion that 
Christianity was untrue, but essential to society, and that on 
this ground alone it should be retained. . . . The old religion 
seemed everywhere loosening around the minds of men, and it 
had often no great influence even on its defenders. . . . Butler, 
in the preface to his Analogy, declared that 'it had come to be 
taken for granted that Christianity is not so much as a subject of 
inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. 
... As different ages have been distinguished by different 
sorts of particular errors and vices, the deplorable distinction of 
ours is an avowed scorn of religion in some and a growing dis- 
regard of it in the generality.' . . . Montesquieu summed up 
his observations on English life by declaring, no doubt with 
great exaggeration, that there was no religion in England, that 
the subject, if mentioned in society, excited nothing but laugh- 
ter, and that not more than four or five members of the House 
of Commons were regular attendants at church. . . . ' People of 
fashion,' said Archbishop Seeker, 'especially of that sex which 
ascribes to itself most knowledge, have nearly thrown off all ob- 
servation of the Lord's Day, . . . and if to avoid scandal they 
sometimes vouchsafe their attendance on Divine worship in the 
country, they seldom or never do it in town.' . . . Sunday card- 
parties during a great part of the eighteenth century were fash- 
ionable entertainments in the best circles." 1 

"Sir William Blackstone 'had the curiosity, early in the reign 
of George III., to go from church to church and hear every 
clergyman of note in London. He says that he did not hear a 
single discourse which had more Christianity in it than the writ- 
ings of Cicero ; and that it would have been impossible for him 
to discover, from what he heard, whether the preacher were a 
follower of Confucius, of Mahomet, or of Christ.'" 2 

1 Lecky : History of England in the Eightcc7ith Century, ii. 567-581. 

2 Abbey and Overton : The English Chicrch in the Eighteenth Century, 
ii- 37- 



APPENDIX. 



VI. — Page 12. 



427 



It was about the year 1686, that Philip Jacob Spener founded 
what soon came to be called contemptuously Pietism, in an effort 
to unite brethren in a life of practical piety. A Lutheran, he 
had no wish to renounce or supplant Lutheranism, but contented 
himself with getting kindred spirits to read and pray together, 
to renounce worldly vanities, and to live a pious, charitable life. 
The rapidity with which the people caught at his system shows 
the readiness of their hearts for something more satisfying than 
dogmatic theology. The same spirit of the times is shown in 
the phenomenon of "the praying children," which appeared in 
connection with the Pietists in 1707. Children from four years 
old and upwards suddenly began assembling in the open fields, 
singing and praying, especially for the recovery of the churches 
that had been seized by the Catholics. From field to field the 
contagion spread, in spite of prohibition and even of blows, till 
it extended over the whole country, and was checked only by the 
providing of churches for their meetings. Then it soon died 
out. At Halle the Pietists were permitted to control the new 
university, and by the year 1727 more than six thousand the- 
ologians had received from them their theological education. 
Their system was violently opposed by the Orthodox, for they 
taught that regeneration was not effected by baptism, as Luther 
and Calvin held with the Mother Church, but was an awakening 
or conversion, which was conditioned in subsequent life by the 
Word of God; that only living faith attained justification, and 
that it must be active in preserving it, a sure guarantee existing 
only in a faith which gave evidence of being alive in a pious life 
and active Christianity. Later Pietism became more formal and 
declined, but it had already " poured a mighty religious stream 
into the national life, and sustained it by zealous preaching, 
pastoral care, devotional meetings, and an almost exuberant 
devotional literature." * Moreover, Pietism widely and in- 
creasingly modified the teaching of the whole Lutheran Church, 
as Methodism had done that of the Anglican Church, and as 
Moravianism, in less degree, that of the Reformed or Calvinist 
Church. 

A spirit nearly akin to that of the Pietists became conspic- 
uous in the Roman Catholic Church, at the incoming of the 
1 Kiirtz, ii. 250. 



428 APPENDIX. 

eighteenth century, in the lives and writings of Madame Guyon 
and Archbishop Fenelon. Nothing purer and more elevated 
had appeared in the Church. Nothing perhaps has exercised 
greater influence for good both in the Catholic and in the Pro- 
testant Churches, to this day. Yet their substitution of inward, 
spontaneous, fervid prayer in place of the formalities of the 
Church was thought to interfere with its power, and Madame 
Guyon and the good Archbishop both fell under its condemna- 
tion—the one being sent to pass her days in a dungeon, the 
other meekly bowing in submission to the Holy See. 

It is remarkable that the Moravians, under Zinzendorf, with 
their ecstatic profession of affectional union with their Saviour, 
attracted the interest first of Wesley and somewhat later of Swe- 
denborg, at their meetings in London. Wesley was much influ- 
enced by them, about the beginning of his great revival, in 1738; 
but Swedenborg soon discovered their insincerity and denounced 
them, for which he was denounced in turn. Of the great move- 
ment set on foot by the Wesleys and Whitefield it is to be re- 
membered that nothing equal in extent and power had occurred 
since the Reformation. And indeed it was, with Pietism, a re- 
formation like that of John the Baptist in the wilderness, laying 
low the mountains and raising up the valleys in preparation for 
what was to come. 



VII. — Page 13. 

The conditions of a consummation are as obvious in the 
causes of the French Revolution as in the catastrophe itself. 
Among these causes we may reckon first the oppression of the 
laboring class by Church and State and Gentry, all for mere 
voluptuous indulgence. Fenelon wrote to the king, — 

"Your people are dying of hunger. The tillage of the land is 
almost abandoned. Towns and villages are being depopulated. 
All the trades languish and no longer feed the workmen. ... In 
place of drawing money from this poor people, they ought to re- 
ceive alms and be fed. All France is nothing now but a great 
hospital, stripped and without provisions. Popular movements, 
which had been long unknown, are becoming frequent. . . . You 
are reduced to the deplorable extremity, either of leaving sedi- 
tion unpunished, or of massacring the people whom you drive to 



APPENDIX. 429 

despair, and who are perishing every day with disease caused by 
famine. While they want bread, you yourself want money, and 
you will not see the extremity to which you are reduced." 

An official account in 1698 had said, — 

" In the greater part of Rouen, in Normandy, which was 
always one of the most industrious and well-to-do provinces, out 
of seven hundred thousand souls there are not fifty thousand 
who eat bread at their ease and who sleep on anything better 
than straw. In the greater part of Caen the population has 
diminished a half by poverty." 

In 1707 Vauban wrote, — 

" The tenth part of the people is reduced to beggary, and begs 
in fact: two million beggars out of twenty million people. Of 
the other nine tenths there are five who are not in condition to 
give alms to the one tenth, because they are within a trifle of 
being reduced to the same wretched condition; and of the four 
remaining tenths, three are very poorly off." 

In 1725 Saint Simon wrote, — 

"The poor people of Normandy eat grass, and the kingdom is 
turned into a vast hospital of the dying and of those driven to 
despair." 

In 1740 Bishop Massillon wrote to Minister Fleury, — 

"My lord, the people of our country live in frightful poverty, 
without bed, without furniture, The greater part even lack, for 
half the year, oat and barley bread, which makes their sole sub- 
sistence, and are obliged to tear it from their own and their chil- 
dren's mouths to pay their taxes." 

In 1745 the Duke of Orleans said to Louis XV. on presenting 
him with some fern bread: "Sire, see on what your subjects 
feed." 1 

When we consider that the clergy held the third part of the 
soil of France and exacted a tithe of the produce of the rest, 
affecting to call this tithe a free-will offering, while they prose- 
cuted forty thousand lawsuits to enforce it, we can see that the 
crash must come, and can understand why Church and State 
domination must go down together. 

"During the eighteenth century men were speculating on re- 
ligion, government, and society in a more daring way than they 
had ever speculated on so great a scale before. . . . This whole 
period, then, was one of very great importance, but it was mainly 
1 Lacombe : Petite Histoire dn Peuple Francais, p. 202. 



430 APPENDIX. 

in the way of preparation for what was coming. ... In most 
branches of art, learning, and original composition the eight- 
eenth century was below either the times before or the times 
after it. It seemed as if the world needed to be stirred up by 
some such general crash as was now near at hand. ... It was 
a time [the latter part of the century] which saw such an up- 
setting of the existing state of things everywhere as had never 
happened before in so short a space of time. . . . But in this 
general crash the evil of the older times was largely swept away 
as well as the good, and means were at least given for a better 
state of things to begin in our own time." x 



VIII. — Page 115. 

This topic is nowhere more finely treated than in Matheson's 
Growth of the Spirit of Christianity: — 

"Let us marshal once again the testimonies of the past. We 
have seen the mind of man sleeping profoundly in China, dream- 
ing wildly in Brahma, reposing restlessly in Buddha, half-waking 
in Persia, fully conscious in Egypt, strongly active in Greece. 
Then we have seen the life of strength taken up into the life of 
sacrifice, the power to do transmuted into the power to suffer, 
and Paganism fading in the light of Christianity. Christianity 
itself we have beheld rising from very small beginnings: first, 
the infant that could only wonder; next, at the Pentecostal out- 
pouring, the child learning to speak; then, in the home associ- 
ations of Jerusalem, the child learning to feel. By and by we 
have seen these home associations broken, and Christianity 
driven forth to seek an enlarged sympathy and a wider brother- 
hood. We have seen the child's first guesses at truth, its first 
experiences of worldly contact, and its first dreams of worldly 
ambition. We have marked how these dreams were disap- 
pointed in the very act of their fulfilment, and how the attain- 
ment of childhood's goal was the death of childhood's joy. 
Then we have followed the spirit of Christianity from the life of 
childhood into the life of school: have seen it first trained under 
the abbot, and afterwards under the rod of the Roman bishop. 
We have observed the gradual yet steady development of that 
scholastic life, from its beginning in the representation of truth 

1 Edw. A. Freeman : General Sketch of History (Am. ed.), pp. 325-27. 



APPENDIX. 



431 



by images, to its glorious consummation in the incarnation of 
truth in art. We have marked how. at each successive stage of 
development, the school-life became more and more dissatisfied 
with school, and how as the spirit grew larger than the form, the 
form became increasingly repulsive to the spirit. We have 
traced the violent revolutions by which that repulsiveness was 
manifested, from the image controversy of the East to the rising 
of WyclifFe in the West. At last, in the Council of Constance, 
we have beheld the close of the school-life and the entrance 
into the age of youth. We have followed Christianity through 
its youthful Utopian dreams, have seen the castles of its fancy 
and the lands of its imagination beyond the sea, and have heard 
the proud boast of independence by which it asserted its newly 
found freedom. And we have seen how the castles crumbled 
into ruins; we have marked how the lands faded into empty 
space ; we have heard how the proud boast was transformed into 
a bitter cry, — the cry of disappointed hope, the cry of unsatis- 
fied desire. We have seen, finally, how the conscious helpless- 
ness of youth was to be the regenerative hour of manhood, 
joining together the long-separated elements of individual free- 
dom and individual responsibility, — the power of self-action and 
the necessity to act for God. Thus far we have journeyed, and 
we need journey no farther in order to reach the great conclu- 
sion that this world is not a chaos, but a cosmos; not. a series 
of chances, but a grand moral order. It is not that here and 
there in the history of the past we observe the outburst of great 
practical movements; it is not that in some apparently isolated 
events the historian can succeed in tracing a deep connection, — 
such facts would be powerfully suggestive, but they would not 
necessarily be persuasive. But there is a river of life, never 
diverted, never broken; a river sometimes corrupted in its 
waters by the soil it is passing through, sometimes retarded in 
its course by the artificial embankments raised by man, yet 
through all corruptions and through all retardations swelling 
surely onward to the mighty sea. The course of humanity has 
been an onward course. Individual men have gone back, indi- 
vidual nations have gone back, but humanity itself has never 
receded. And wheresoever Christianity has breathed, it has 
accelerated the movement of humanity. It has quickened the 
pulses of life ; it has stimulated the incentives to thought; it has 



432 



APPENDIX. 



tuned the passions into peace; it has warmed the heart into 
brotherhood; it has fanned the imagination into genius; it has 
freshened the soul into purity. The progress of Christian 
Europe has been the progress of mind over matter. . . . We 
see the universal life moulding the individual lives, the one 
will dominating the many wills, the infinite wisdom utilizing 
the finite folly, the changeless truth permeating the restless 
error, the boundless beneficence bringing blessing out of all" 
(ii. 392). 

IX.— Page 125. 

A recent writer in the German Astronomical Quarterly 
(1879), Magnus Nyren, in an exposition of the cosmogony of 
Swedenborg's Principia as a contribution to the history of the 
nebular hypothesis of Kant and Laplace, draws the following 
conclusions : — 

" As one sees, this [the cosmogony of Swedenborg] differs 
in a single important particular from the later, regarded as the 
most probable, accepted hypothesis on the same subject ; and in 
general his conclusions, with the exception of the vortical theory, 
are founded on the most scientific basis. In spite of this defect, 
and even of many evident faults in regard to what is possible 
according to the theory of gravitation, it cannot be denied that 
the true fundamental principle of the nebular theory was first 
declared by Swedenborg, — namely, that the entire solar system 
was formed out of a single chaotic mass, which was at first col- 
lected in the form of a colossal sphere, and afterwards by rota- 
tion threw off a ring, which then, during the continued rotation, 
divided into separate portions, and these at length gathered 
themselves up into spheres — the planets. 

"The work of Kant on this subject, 'Universal History of 
Nature and Theory of the Heavens,' was not published until 
1 755, twenty-one years later. Laplace did not make known his 
theory until sixty-two years later. It is here also to be remarked, 
that Swedenborg gave to his hypothesis the correct form ac- 
cording to all the probabilities, — that (as was also adopted by 
Laplace) the planets came into existence from separated rings, 
. . . not as Kant thought, in already formed masses directly out 
of the original mass of vapor. ... In regard to the correctness 



APPENDIX. 433 

of the above-given explanation of the statement that the Milky 
Way is the common axis of the starry heavens, I do not here 
undertake properly to make reliable conclusions concerning 
Swedenborg's views of the question touched upon. But when, 
as it seems to me, no other meaning can be found therein than 
that the Milky Way is the equatorial intersection — zodiac — of 
our entire visible sphere of the heavens, the priority belongs to 
Swedenborg. In reference to the first ideas advanced concern- 
ing the star-system of the Milky Way, that, while one metes out 
justice to Swedenborg, one does not in the least diminish the 
merit due to Kant and Laplace in regard to the question spoken 
of, is well understood. For, firstly, neither of these two evi- 
dently knew anything of Swedenborg's opinions on the same 
subject, although a reference to them appeared in the Acta 
Eruditorum, Leipsic, for 1737; and Kant mentions in his 
treatise giving forth his views, that these writings were accessi- 
ble to him ; so that there can be no doubt that he would have 
mentioned it, if he had borrowed for his ideas anything from 
Swedenborg. Secondly, Kant and also Laplace have the undis- 
puted credit of having elucidated and explained the hypothesis 
in question from the standpoint of the theory of gravitation, 
while, on the other hand, Swedenborg worked out every con- 
clusion deductively according to the demands of the vortical 
theory." 

This is not the first nor the broadest claim that has been 
made for the astronomical speculations of the P?~incipia, but 
we select it, in preference to claims that have been made by 
Swedenborg's friends, for its recent and high authority, and for 
its generous fairness. It is not uncommon to lay stress on the 
fact that Laplace credited Buffon with the first suggestion of a 
nebular theory, and that Buffon is known to have possessed a 
copy of Swedenborg's Principia, which was published ten years 
before his own theory. 1 But we like the spirit of the writer 
now quoted, and join him in crediting all these great thinkers 
with having worked out their own conclusions independently. 
We will but add the single remark, that the Principia can afford 
to wait another hundred years, if need be, for the acceptance 
of its vortical theory. 

1 Translator's Introduction to the Principia, ii. So. 
28 



434 APPENDIX. 

X. — Page 134. 

M. Matter says, — 

"The same year he published also at Dresden a volume on 
the three great questions of the time: The Infinite; The Final 
Cause of nature ; and The Mysterious Bond of the Soul and the 
Body (Outline of Rational Philosophy, etc.). 

"And here again it will be necessary for us to give an idea of 
this work in order to have some comprehension of the extent of 
the science of the author, the elevation of his mind, and its 
familiarity with the highest speculative regions, with which the 
learned man of Stockholm must soon enter into the third, so 
extraordinary, phase of his life. The author means that every 
thought be reasonable, and every exposition of idea simple, even 
to familiarity. Never is the reasonable contrary to revelation, 
he says, and never is what is not clear philosophic. 

"This simplicity does not prevent originality. 

"The question of the Infinite then agitated is always still to 
be resolved, human intelligence being incapable of embracing 
the thing which is in question, and comprehending only the idea, 
or the word which is used to designate it. It had just been 
treated in Sweden by the creator of modern philosophy. For 
Descartes, the world was the infinite whole of worlds, the uni- 
verse without bounds, the Divine creation or formation of which 
offered difficult problems. The friend of Queen Christina 
boldly explained its origin by means of three elements, — subtile 
matter or fine dust, little globules, and matters deprived entirely 
or animated with little motion (see our History of Philosophy 
in its relations with Religion, p. 265). Swedenborg, who was 
Cartesian for philosophy properly so-called, logic and method, 
was very little so for psychology and metaphysics, and not at 
all for cosmology. He changed from the foundation all this 
theory, and demanded, without any disrespect for a great name, 
but with entire independence, that incontestable facts should 
be put in place of those conceptions which are little else than 
assertions. 

"From Descartes, Swedenborg passed to Bacon with the same 
ease, the same respect, and the same superiority in the question 
of the final causes of each of the great works of nature, or of 
the final cause of the whole. 



APPENDIX. 435 

" Bacon, to lead philosophers to become observers of facts, — 
in a word, naturalists, and not inventors of systems, that is to say 
hypotheses, — had proscribed final causes ; or, rather, he had in- 
terdicted search for them. What is given us in phenomena is 
phenomena, he said. Let us establish it : that is our part. As 
for the cause, it does not belong to us. That is the part of the 
Creator. This manner of clearing up the question by closing 
the eyes, did not suit Swedenborg. It is not in the power of 
the human mind to renounce it, said he, and it would be wrong 
to do it if we could. 

"After Descartes and Bacon, the turn of Leibnitz came in the 
study of the third question, — the problem of the bond between 
the soul and the body. Leibnitz had just given that hypothesis 
of pre-established harmony of which he made much, but which 
satisfied nobody, not even Wolff, the most faithful of his disci- 
ples. Swedenborg, who aimed at the soul in all his studies on 
the animal kingdom, so eminent in the creations of nature, could 
not help desiring to do better with this problem. And if ever 
the question of the soul was treated loftily, it was by him. 

"He began by proclaiming this great principle and this fine 
rule,— that in order to explain the soul we must go to the body, 
the microcosm, the world which it inhabits: the secret or the 
science of the soul is there alone. But it is not by the synthetic 
way, in which we find and affirm what we please ; it is by the 
analytic way, in which we establish and declare what we can, 
that we must proceed in this field. 

"The great merit of Swedenborg in the discussion of these 
three questions is in having aided, in the name of facts, in 
giving liberty to philosophy. In philosophy, as in politics, in 
order that life and natural movement may return, it is necessary 
to begin by overturning the despotism which stops the circula- 
tion. Swedenborg was rightly impatient with the state of stag- 
nation in which three overgrown authorities,— Bacon, Descartes, 
and Leibnitz,— held minds enchained; and Wolff was right in 
paying homage to him who worked so well for the deliverance of 
thought. Swedenborg, it is true, did not finally settle any of 
these questions, and every philosopher knows why ; but he set 
them all three free." 1 

1 Sivede7iborg ; sa vie, p. 41-43. 



436 APPENDIX. 



XL— Page 168. 

The question is a serious one, whether science is really any 
nearer now to an acknowledgment of the God of heaven than it 
was in the middle of the last century. It is true that there are 
still men of science, eminent in their way, who seek to find all 
causes in physical forces and conditions, and who ignore the 
Deity and immortality. But on the other hand there are men of 
science not less eminent, and who have the heart of the world 
with them, to whom the phenomena of nature are but revelations 
of the mind of an all-wise and all-beneficent God. A few years 
ago there were working side by side, within hearing of our 
printing-press, three professors of natural science, each unsur- 
passed in the world in his chosen department, — Agassiz, Pierce, 
and Gray. In Professor Agassiz's Preface to his famed Essay 
on Classification he said, in speaking of the divisions of the 
animal kingdom, — 

"Are those divisions artificial or natural ? Are they the de- 
vices of the human mind to classify and arrange our knowledge 
in such a manner as to bring it more readily within our grasp 
and facilitate further investigations, or have tljey been instituted 
by the Divine Intelligence as the categories of His mode of 
thinking? Have we, perhaps, thus far been only the uncon- 
scious interpreters of a Divine conception, in our attempts to 
expound nature ? . . . To me it appears indisputable, that this 
order and arrangement of our studies are based upon the natural, 
primitive relations of animal life, — those systems to which we 
have given the names of the great leaders of our science who 
first proposed them, being in truth but translations into human 
language of the thoughts of the Creator. And if this is indeed 
so, do we not find in this adaptability of the human intellect to 
the facts of creation, by which we become instinctively, and, as 
I have said, unconsciously, the translators of the thoughts of 
God, the most conclusive proof of our affinity with the Divine 
Mind ? And is not this intellectual and spiritual connection 
with the Almighty worthy of our deepest consideration? If 
there is any truth in the belief that man is made in the image of 
God, it is surely not amiss for the philosopher to endeavor, by 
the study of his own mental operations, to approximate the 
workings of the Divine Reason, learning from the nature of his 



APPENDIX. 



437 



own mind better to understand the Infinite Intellect from which 
it is derived. But who is the truly humble ? He who, pene- 
trating into the secrets of creation, arranges them under a 
formula, which he proudly calls his scientific system? — or he 
who in the same pursuit recognizes his glorious affinity with the 
Creator, and in deepest gratitude for so sublime a birthright 
strives to be the faithful interpreter of that Divine Intellect with 
whom he is permitted, nay, with whom he is intended, according 
to the laws of his being, to enter into communion ? " 

" If it can be proved . . . that this plan of creation, which so 
commends itself to our highest wisdom, has not grown out of 
the necessary action of physical laws, but was the free con- 
ception of the Almighty Intellect, matured in His thought before 
it was manifested in tangible external forms ; if, in short, we 
can prove premeditation prior to the act of creation,— we have 
done, once and for ever, with the desolate theory which refers us 
to the laws of matter as accounting for all the wonders of the 
universe, and leaves us with no God but the monotonous, un- 
varying action of physical forces, binding all things to their 
incurable destiny. I think our science has now reached that 
degree of advancement, when we may venture upon such an 
investigation." 

Professor Gray prefaced his Botany for Young People with 
the beautiful verses from Matthew: "Consider the lilies 
of the field, how they grow : they toil not, neither 
do they spin : and yet i say unto you, that even 
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 

OF THESE." 

Then he said, " Our Lord's direct object in this lesson of 
the Lilies was to convince the people of God's care for them. 
Now, this clothing of the earth with plants and flowers — at once 
so beautiful and useful, so essential to all animal life — is one 
of the very ways in which He takes care of His creatures. 
And when Christ himself directs us to consider with attention 
the plants around us ; to notice how they grow, — how varied, 
how numerous, and how elegant they are, and with what exquisite 
skill they are fashioned and adorned, — we shall surely find it 
profitable and pleasant to learn the lessons which they teach." 

Again he said, in his address on " Natural Science and 
Religion," — 



433 



APPENDIX. 



" I accept Christianity on its own evidence, . . . and I am 
yet to learn how physical or any other science conflicts with it. 
... I take it that religion is based on the idea of a Divine 
Mind revealing Himself to intelligent creatures for moral ends. 
... I suppose that the Old Testament carried the earlier reve- 
lation and the germs of Christianity, as the Apostles carried 
the treasures of the Gospel, in earthen vessels. . . . But how- 
ever we may differ in regard to the earlier stages of religious 
development, we shall agree in this, — that revelation culminated, 
and for us most essentially consists, in the advent of a Divine 
Person, who, being made man, manifested the Divine Nature 
in union with the human ; and that this manifestation consti- 
tutes Christianity." 

Professor Benjamin Pierce began his great text-book of 
Analytic Mechanics, with these three propositions : — 

" i. Motion is an essential element of all physical phenomena ; 
and its introduction into the universe of matter was necessarily 
the preliminary act of creation. The earth must have remained 
forever ' without form, and void,' and eternal darkness must 
have been upon the face of the deep, if the spirit of God had 
not first ' moved upon the face of the waters.' 

" 2. Motion appears to be the simplest manifestation of power, 
and the idea of force seems to be primitively derived from the 
conscious effort which is required to produce motion. Force 
may, then, be regarded as having a spiritual origin, and when it 
is imparted to the physical world, motion is its usual form of 
mechanical exhibition. 

"3. Matter is purely inert. It is susceptive of receiving and 
containing any amount of mechanical force which may be com- 
municated to it, but cannot originate new force, or in any way 
transform the force which it has received." 

In the " Conclusion " of the book are found the following 
memorable words : — 

" In the beginning, the creating spirit embodied in the material 
universe those laws and forms of motion which were best ad- 
apted to the instruction and development of the created intellect. 
The relations of the physical world to man as developed in space 
and time, as ordered in proximate simplicity and remote compli- 
cation, in the immediate supply of bodily wants by the mechanic 
arts, and the infinite promise of spiritual enjoyment by the con- 



APPENDIX. 439 

templation and study of unlimited change and variety of phe- 
nomena, are admirably adapted to stimulate and encourage the 
action and growth of the mind. . . . But it is time to return to 
nature, and learn from her actual solutions the recondite analysis 
of the more obscure problems of celestial and physical mechanics. 
In these researches there is one lesson which cannot escape the 
profound observer. Every portion of the material universe is 
pervaded by the same laws of mechanical action which are in- 
corporated into the very constitution of the human mind. The 
solution of the problem of this universal presence of such a 
spiritual element is obvious and necessary. There is one 
God, and science is the knowledge of Him." 

Later, in his series of Lowell lectures, Professor Pierce had 
for his leading idea the revelation of the one God in all His 
works : — 

" That the perfection of theology requires that all the gods 
should be reduced to one God, will be admitted. But let us 
consider where the proposition lands us, that all science can 
be reduced to one fact. Among the facts to be embodied are 
the facts of omnipresent ideality, the intelligible cosmos, and the 
all-comprehending intellect. The law of universal gravitation 
must be incorporated in it, and the laws of rest and motion, of 
chemistry and heat and electricity, of sound and light, and of 
all vibrations audible and inaudible, visible and invisible, and 
of all forms of sensation actual or possible. All the laws of the 
material world must be included, and they will constitute its 
least part. The mind of man must be in it, with its philosophy, 
its emotions, and its infinite capacity of development. It must 
contain the law of love, the Sermon on the Mount, and the 
Lord's Prayer. What can this mighty fact be but God Him- 
self?" 

" We need not search the obscure past to find out God. It 
is not in the first appearance of animal life or of man himself 
that He need be sought, any more than in the whirlwind or the 
earthquake. His dwelling is not where the law of continuity is 
broken. There would be the proper home of some heathen 
deity, who rejoiced in lawlessness. But our God proclaims 
Himself in the silent law of gravitation ; He is forever present 
in the quiet grandeur and intellectual simplicity of the processes 
of the nebular theory, and in the soul of man, which is fitted to 



44° APPENDIX. 

understand the Divine harmony. The Creator is not ruled out 
of the universe by our theory of evolution. That which we 
call evolution is but the mode in which He is present on whom 
mortal cannot look with physical eyes and live. It is the mani- 
festation of His paternity. He becomes through it, more leg- 
ibly than ever, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the 
Omega, the eternal I am, the omnipresent Father, the breath 
of whose nostrils is wisdom and power and love." 

"O ye of little faith! Accept the Divine record of the 
sidereal universe, or ye would not believe in God if His name 
were written in letters of fire upon the firmament ! To reject 
the ideal history is to strengthen the stronghold of scepticism. 
It is to deny the celestial doctrine written upon the heavens 
and the earth. It is to reject the law of the Lord, which is 
perfect, converting the soul. Let the children be faithful to the 
Father, and loyally receive the declaration that He made the 
light with which He shines through the stars, and that it is 
good." 

"The birth of Christianity changed the whole firmament of 
thought. It was a new spiritual world into which the race was 
transported. Centuries of profound brooding were required, ere 
mankind could shake off the torpor of the ancient darkness and 
awake to the morning light of the Gospel. But when at last 
the eyes were fully opened, the natural world was revealed in a 
new light, learning revived in grander aspects, and science was 
transformed from speciality to generality." 

"Why have such curious and intricate celestial problems 
been presented to man's appetite for knowledge ? ... The 
changing surface of the sun and his planets; the wonderful 
system of Saturn, with his mysterious ring and his many satel- 
lites ; the intricate maze of the cluster of Hercules and of the 
Pleiades; the immense nebular and stellar transformations,— 
are a stimulus to research, presented by the Divine teacher, and 
a promise, surer than the rainbow, that we shall be delivered 
from this deep flood of ignorance. . . . Such is the glory and 
majesty of the intellectual future life, naturally suggested to 
the faith of the Christian philosopher. How infinitely grand, 
in comparison with the sensual joys promised by other forms 
of religion ! " 1 

1 Ideality in the Physical Sciences, pp. 32, 57, 70, 190, 192. 



APPENDIX. 441 

Associated with these three great teachers, in labor and in 
deep converse on such inspired themes, was our late friend, 
Professor Theophilus Parsons, to whom the public is more in- 
debted for an intelligent apprehension of the philosophy of the 
New Church, than to any other student of Swedenborg. In re- 
ference to the naturalistic tendency of the age, Mr. Parsons 
says, — - 

" It is to avert this danger and arrest the decay of religious 
belief, as well as to lay the foundations of a faith that will en- 
dure every test, and last through the ages, that this new reve- 
lation [through Swedenborg] is given. Its work of reanimating 
and refounding religion, of clearing away the ruins which cum- 
ber the old and immovable foundations of religion, and building 
upon them a new structure that will endure every test, and re- 
sist every assault, and abide the test of time, must be gradual 
and slow, and hardly perceptible in its early stages; for it can 
be wrought only through reason, and reason working in freedom, 
— and human reason is in these days greatly cumbered and 
darkened. But it is impossible for those who have studied and 
learned the truths taught by Swedenborg to doubt that this 
work will be done ; to them the result is inevitable. 

" Already a city is 'descending from God out of heaven,' 
which 'the glory of God will lighten,' — 'and the nations of 
them which are saved will walk in the light of it, and the kings 
of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.' . . . From 
God, by the agency of His angels, a new system of truth and 
doctrine is being given to men, as a city for their minds, where, 
although entering each through his own among the many gates, 
men may dwell together in the peace of certainty, and in pos- 
session of truth irradiated with light from the knowledge that 
and how God is, and is the source and centre of all being ; and 
nations will be saved from ignorance and sin by walking in this 
light ; and the kings of the spirit, or the certain and sovereign 
truths of genuine knowledge of every kind, will bring their glory 
and honor into it, by acknowledging that it is the teacher and 
the mother of all wisdom." 1 

1 Outlines of the Philosophy of the New Church, p. 31. 



442 



APPENDIX. 



XII. — Page 415. 



Whatever help is given us to know our Lord is given us 
from Him, and it is a matter of indifference, relatively, whether 
or not we know through whom it comes. But those who know 
that their light has come through Swedenborg have a certain 
duty and responsibility. Recognizing their faith as given 
through him, they recognize him as divinely commissioned to 
instruct them; they recognize his teachings as not his, but their 
Lord's ; and they acknowledge the Lord as the source of all the 
light that shines in their minds. It then behooves them, first, to 
let their light so shine in their works that men may be led to its 
source ; second, to preserve and study and publish to the world 
the teachings which have been intrusted to them. Led by 
this duty, those who have become convinced of the reality of 
Swedenborg's mission have for the most part felt called upon to 
associate in church fellowship with others of the same convic- 
tion, although no instruction of this kind was left by their great 
teacher, and though many most sincere receivers of his teach- 
ings have construed their duty otherwise, and have remained in 
their first church connection. This is a practical question of 
use, which every one may decide best for himself. 

Meanwhile, as under the influence of the New Heaven and 
by the permeation of the teachings of the New Church on earth 
the preaching in all the Churches is rapidly losing its former 
error and approaching nearer and nearer to the doctrine re- 
vealed through Swedenborg, 1 the distinction between what is 

1 The remarkable objection has already been made against the revelations 
given through Swedenborg, and will be urged more and more, that they are only 
what enlightened common-sense would teach, and but carry farther what we 
have always known or felt. Let us put with this the following wise remarks of 
Mr. Matheson : — 

" The most powerful revelation will be that message which speaks deepest 
home to all that we have known ; and if Christianity has obtained that pre- 
eminence, it is because pre-eminently it possesses this quality. . . . When 
Christianity came, the world recognized it, not instantaneously indeed, but yet 
with wonderful rapidity ; and the reason of this recognition, apart from its 
supernatural power, was the meeting-place it presented to the conflicting views 
of men. Around this centre the most diverse beliefs could nestle ; Judaism, 
Orientalism, the features of the Western mythology, and the best elements in 
all the current systems of philosophy, all rested here." — Op. Cit. vol. i. p. 8. 

How true this is again of the revelations through Swedenborg, none can 
believe but by experience. 



APPENDIX. 



443 



taught in the professed New Church and what is taught in 
other Churches, is growing every day less apparent. It is be- 
coming a question to the children of the New Church, What is 
the difference ? And of what consequence is it what Church 
we belong to ? A full appreciation of the duty and responsi- 
bility we have just stated answers these questions. It must be 
the permanent distinction between Churches in which the reve- 
lations made through Swedenborg are acknowledged, and those 
in which they are not, that in the one the light by which the 
Sacred Scriptures are unfolded is known to be given from 
Heaven, and in the other it may be supposed to come from the 
intelligence of men. Nor is this distinction an intellectual one 
only. Whoever appreciates the sweet, and not pangless, heart- 
change by which Swedenborg was led to see all the light that 
came to him as from the Lord alone, cannot fail to recognize 
the deep, interior regeneration effected by such acknowledg- 
ment. 



XIII. 
PORTRAITS OF SWEDENBORG. 

There are several painted portraits of Swedenborg, which 
have been variously reproduced by the brush, in engravings, 
and in photographs. The earliest portrait is that of the en- 
graving prefixed to the Principia, from we know not what paint- 
ing, or drawing. This was pronounced by Cuno still an excellent 
likeness when Swedenborg was forty years older. There are, 
however, serious faults in the drawing, and the likeness cannot 
be fully relied on. 

Of the later portraits, the best known is the one presented by 
Swedenborg to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, 
still hanging in their Great Hall. It is known to us through 
Martin's engraving, executed in 1782, which has been several 
times copied, — as by Mr. Joseph Andrews for the Boston edition 
of The True CJwistian Religion, and in a lithograph published 
by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel. It is a well-balanced face, mild and amia- 
ble, but rather feeble in expression. 

The best likeness, in the judgment of the Rev. R. L. Tafel, 
who has had good opportunities for comparison, is an oil paint- 



444 



APPENDIX. 



ing that was found hanging in Swedenborg's bedchamber. This 
was imported into America by Mr. S. A. Schoff, and after- 
wards came into the hands of the Trustees of the Central Con- 
vention, of whom the Rev. W. H. Benade, of Philadelphia, is 
the survivor. Its features are also well known through photo- 
graphs, but it has not been very popular by reason of a certain 
hardness of expression, — in this differing alike from all other 
portraits, and from the uniform description of Swedenborg's ap- 
pearance. Yet there is a certain honesty and strength of char- 
acter expressed which give a probability of likeness. 

The best painting and most agreeable portrait is that of 
which we are kindly allowed to present Mr. SchofFs excellent 
engraving, for our frontispiece. The original painting was made 
for Swedenborg's good friend, Count Hopken, probably by 
Kraft. It is now in the National Gallery of Gripsholm. Our 
engraving was made for the Board of Publications of the Gene- 
ral Convention, and for the American N. C. Tract and Publi- 
cation Society, and is to be found also in the Compendium of 
Swedenborg's Theological Writings, by the Rev. Samuel M. 
Warren. It is from a copy of the Kraft portrait in the posses- 
sion of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing 
Society, New York. Another copy is in the possession of the 
Rev. James Reed, Boston. 

Of other portraits of less authenticity we will mention only 
the two medals struck in Swedenborg's honor, — the one by 
the Swedish Academy, and the other by the Royal Academy 
of Sciences of Stockholm, which give a marked profile, with 
prominent Roman nose, — we know not on what authority. 



XIV. 

WRITINGS OF SWEDENBORG. 

The following is a chronological catalogue of the writings of 
Swedenborg, in condensed form, from the Rev. R. L. Tafel's 
Documents, preserving his numeration. "Photolith" means 
photolithographed by him in 1870. 

1. Select Sentences of L. Annaeus Seneca and Pub. Syrus 
Mimus ; with notes. (Academical Thesis.) 62pp.,8vo. 
Upsal, 1709. 



APPENDIX. 445 

2. Ecclesiastes xii., in Latin verse. Skara, 1709. 

3. Latin verses in honor of Sophia E. Brenner. 2 pp., 4to. 

1710. 

4. The Northern Muse sporting with the deeds of Heroes and 

Heroines. 112 pp., i6mo. Greifswalde, 1715- — Second 
edition (including Nos. 3, 6, 34) ; Dr. J. F. I. Tafel. 1845. 

5. Heliconian Sport, or Miscellaneous Poems. 16 pp., 4to. 

Skara, 1716. — Second edition, Stockholm, 1826. — Third 
edition; Dr. Tafel. 1841. 

6. A Sapphic Poem, celebrating my dearest father's Birth-day. 

Skara, 17 16. 

7. Daedalus Hvperboreus ; six nos. 154 pp., 4to. Upsal, 

1716-1718. 

8. Information concerning the Tinware of Stiernsund. In 

Swedish. 4 pp., 4to. Stockholm, 1717. 

9. Importance of an Astronomical Observatory in Sweden. 

In Swedish, 4 pp., folio, MS. 1717. 

10. On the Causes of Things. 4 pp., 4to. 171 7. 

11. New Theory of the End of the Earth. In Swedish, 38 pp., 

MS. 1717. 

12. Mode of Aiding Commerce and Manufactures. In Swedish, 

6 pp., 4to, MS. 1717. 

13. Establishment of Salt-works in Sweden. In Swedish, 4 pp., 

folio, MS. 171 7. 

14. Nature of Fire and Colors. In Swedish, 6 pp., folio, MS. 

1717. 

15. Algebra: in ten books. In Swedish, 135 pp., i6mo. Upsal, 

1718. 

16. Geometrical and Algebraical Matters. (A treatise on 

Higher Mathematics.) 169 pp., 4to, MS. Photolith by 
R. L. Tafel. 

17. Attempt to find Longitude by the Moon. In Swedish, 38 

pp., 8vo. Upsal, 1718. — Second edition in Latin, Am- 
sterdam, 1721, No. 30. 

18. On the Motion and Station of the Earth and Planets. In 

Swedish, 40 pp., i2mo. Skara, 171 8. 

19. The great Depth of Water and strong Tides of the Prime- 

val World. In Swedish, 40 pp., iomo. Upsal, 1719. 

20. Swedish Iron Furnaces. In Swedish, 84 pp., 4to, MS. 

1719. 

21. Anatomy, showing our moving and living Force to consist 

of T /emulations. In Swedish, 48 pp., 4to, MS. 1719. 

22. New Directions for discovering Metallic Veins. 14 pp., 4to, 

MS. 1719. 



446 APPENDIX. 

23. Docks, Canal-locks, and Salt-works. In Swedish, 8 pp., 

4to, MS. 1719. 

24. Regulating our Coins and Measures. (Decimal System.) 

In Swedish, 8 pp., 4to. Stockholm, 1719. — Second edi- 
tion, 1795. 

25. Rise and Fall of Lake Wener. In Swedish, 7 pp., folio, 

MS. 1720. 

26. First Principles of Natural Things. 560 pp., 4to, MS. 1720. 

Photolith. 

27. Letter to Jacob a Melle. 4 pp., Acta Lit., Sueciae. 1721. 

28. Sketch [Prodromus] of First Principles of Natural Things ; 

J 99 PP-> i6mo. Amsterdam, 1 721.— Second edition, Am- 
sterdam, 1727. — Third edition, Hildburghausen, 1754. — 
English edition, entitled "Some Specimens of a Work on 
the Principles of Chemistry," etc. (including Nos. 29-31); 
London, 1847. 

29. New Observations and Discoveries about Iron and Fire. 

56 pp., 16 mo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edition, 1727. 

30. New Method of finding Longitudes (No. 17 in conciser 

form). 29 pp., 8vo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edition, 
1727. — Third edition, Hildburghausen, 1754. — Fourth 
edition, Amsterdam, 1766. 

31. Construction of Docks and Dykes, and Measurement of 

Vessels. 21 pp., 8vo. Amsterdam, 1721. — Second edi- 
tion, Amsterdam, 1727. 

32. New Rules for maintaining Heat in Rooms. 3 pp., in Acta 

Lit. Sueciaeo 1722. 

33. Miscellaneous Observations on Natural Things. Parts L- 

III., 164 pp., i6mo ; Leipsic, 1722. Part IV., 56 pp., 
i6mo ; Schiffbeck, 1722 (?). Twelve chapters photolith. 
— English edition entitled "Miscellaneous Observations 
connected with the Physical Sciences " (including No. 
35); London, 1847. 

34. Fable of the Love and Metamorphosis of the Muse Urania. 

8 pp., 4to. Schiffbeck, T722. 

35. Power of the Deep Waters of the Deluge. 3 pp., in Acta 

Lit. Sueciae, 1722. 

36. Rise and Fall of Swedish Currency. In Swedish, 20 pp., 4to. 

Stockholm, 1722. — Second edition, 1769. 

37. The Magnet and its Qualities. 299 pp., 4to, MS. 1722. 

38. The genuine Treatment of Metals. Nineteen Parts were 

projected, if not written, of which four are preserved in 
1481 pp., 4to. 1723. 

39. The Motion of the Elements in general. 5 pp., 4to, MS. 

1724-1733. 



APPENDIX. 447 

40. Notes for the Principia. 13 pp., 4to, MS. 1724-1733. 

41. The Mechanism of the Soul and Body. 16 pp., 4to, MS. 

I724-I733- 

42. Comparison of Wolff's Ontology and Cosmology with our 

Principia. Photolith by R. L. Tafel. 49 pp., 4to, MS. 
1724-1733. 

43. Observations on the Human Body. 6 pp., 4to, MS. 1724- 

1733- 

44. Itinerary for 1 733-1 734. 80 pp., 4T.0, MS. Dr. Tafel. 1840. 

Photolith. 

45. Philosophical and Mineral Works. 3 vols, folio. Dresden 

and Leipsic, 1734. Vol. I., Principia, 452 pp. Vol. II., 
On Iron, 386 pp. Vol. III., On Copper, 534 pp. 

46. Sketch of a Philosophical Argument on the Infinite. 270 

pp., 8vo. Dresden and Leipsic, 1734. 

47. Epitome of the Principia. 27 pp., 4to, MS. 1734. Photolith. 

48. Fragments of three treatises on the Brain; 1004 pp., 4to, 

MS. 1735-1738, Photolith.— English edition, 1882. 

49. Description of my Travels. 40 pp., 4:0, MS. 1 736-1739. 

Dr. Tafel, 1840 and 1844. Photolith. 

50. Way to the Knowledge of the Soul. 5 pp., 4to, MS. 1738. 

London, 1846. — In English, "Posthumous Tracts." Lon- 
don. 

51. Faith and Good Works. 10 pp., 4to, MS. 1738. London, 

1846. — In English, "Posthumous Tracts." London. 

52. Economy of the Animal Kingdom. Part I., 388 pp., 4to, 

London and Amsterdam, 1740. Part II., 194 pp., 4to, 
London and Amsterdam, 1741. — English edition, two 
vols., 8vo, London, 1845. 

53. Characteristic and Mathematical Philosophy of Universals, 

5 pp., folio, MS. Photolith. 

54. On the Bones of the Skull and Ossification. 49 pp., folio, 

MS. 1740. Photolith. 

55. Corpuscular Philosophy in Brief. 1 p., folio, MS. 1740. 

Photolith. 

56. Anatomy of all the Parts of the Brain. 636 pp., folio, MS. 

1740. Photolith. 

57. Introduction to Rational Psychology. 366 pp., 4to, MS. 

1 740-1 741 ; Photolith.— A portion published by Dr. Wil- 
kinson, as the Third Part of the "Economy." London, 
1847. 

58. Declination of Magnetic Needle. (Controversy in Academy 

of Sciences.) 1 740-1 741. TafePs Documents, vol. i. pp. 
565-585. 



448 APPENDIX. 

59. Introduction to Rational Psychology. Part II. 9 pp., folio, 

MS. 1741. Photolith. 

60. Hieroglyphic Key of Natural and Spiritual Mysteries. 48 

pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1784. — English edition, 
London, 1792. — Second English edition, London, 1847. 

61. Comparison of the Three Systems concerning the Inter- 

course of the Soul and Body. Fragment, 44 pp., 4to. 
1741. London, 1846. — English edition, London, 1847. 

62. The Red Blood. 24 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1846. 

— English edition, London, 1847. 

63. The Animal Spirit. 24 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1846. 

— English edition, London, 1847. 

64. Sensation of the Body. 11 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 

1846. — English edition, London, 1847. 

65. Origin and Propagation of the Soul. 6 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. 

London, 1846. — English edition, London, 1847. 

66. Action. 30 pp., 4to, MS. 1741. London, 1846. — English 

edition, London, 1847. 

67. Rational Psychology. 234 pp., folio, MS. 1741-1742. As 

Part VII. of The Ani7>ial Kingdom: on the Soul. By 
Dr. Tafel, 1849. Photolith. 

68. Ontology. 21 pp., folio, MS. 1742. Photolith. 

69. Anatomy of the Human Body. II. and III. 269 pp., folio, 

MS. 1742-1743. Part II. as Part VI., section 2, of The 
Animal Kingdom. By Dr. Tafel, 1849. — Part II., in 
English, as The Generative Organs. London, 1852. 
Photolith. 

70. Swammerdam's Book of Nature. 79 pp., folio, MS. 1743. 

Photolith. 

71. The Animal Kingdom. Part I. 438 pp., 4to. Hague, 1744. 

Part II. 286 pp.. 4to. Hague, 1744. — English edition, 
Dr. J. J. G. Wilkinson, 2 vols. London, 1843-1844. 

72. Dreams. In Swedish, 101 pp., i6mo, MS. 1743-1744. 

Stockholm, 1859. 

73. Sense. 200 pp., folio, MS. 1744. As Part IV. of The 

Animal Kingdom. Dr. Tafel, 1848. Photolith. 

74. Muscles of the Face and Abdomen. 13 pp., folio, MS. 1744. 

Photolith. 

75. Physical and Optical Experiments. 6 pp., folio, MS. 1744. 

Photolith. 

76. The Brain. 43 pp., folio, MS. 1744. Photolith. 

77 . The Animal Kingdom. Part III. 169 pp., 4to. London, 

1745- — English edition of The Animal Kingdom, in Vol. 
II. London, 1844. 



APPENDIX. 449 

78. The Worship and Love of God. Parti. 120 pp., 4*0. Lon- 

don, 1745. Part II. 24 pp., 4to. London, 1745. — English 
edition, London, 1801. 

79. The Worship and Love of God. Part III. 9 pp., 4to. 1745. 

Photolith. 

80. History of Creation given by Moses. 1745. As Adversaria, 

25 pp., in Vol. I. Dr. Tafel. 1847. 

81. The Messiah about to Come. 32 pp., folio, MS. 1745. As 

Adversaria, in Vol. I. Dr. Tafel. 1847. 

82. Explication of the historical Word of the Old Testament. 

169 pp., folio, MS. 1745-1746. As Adversaria. Dr. 
Tafel. 1 842-1 847. 

83. Biblical Index of Historical Books of the Old Testament. 

581 pp., folio, MS. 1746. To letter D published by Dr. 
Tafel. 1859. 

84. Isaiah and Jeremiah Explained ; 107 pp., folio, MS. 1746- 

1747. As Adversaria, Part IV., by Dr. Tafel. 

85. Notes on Jeremiah and Lamentations. MS. Bible Margins. 

1 746-1 747. Photolith. 

86. Biblical Index of Isaiah and part of Jeremiah and Genesis. 

1 746- 1 747. 300 pp., MS. 

87. Memorable Things. Part I., MS. 1747. Spiritual Diary 

(nos. 1-148). Dr. Tafel. 

88. Fragments of Notes on Genesis and Exodus. MS. Bible 

Margins, 1747. Photolith. 

89. Fragments of Notes on the Prophets. MS. Bible Margins, 

1747. Photolith. 

90. Names in the Sacred Scripture. 275 pp., folio, MS. To 

letter D published by Dr. Tafel, 1859. In part as Sup- 
plement of Biblical Index. London, 1873. 

91. Biblical Index of Old Testament, except Genesis. 636 pp., 

folio. MS. 1747-1748. Dr. Tafel and Dr. Kahl. 1859- 
1868. 

92. Biblical Index of New Testament. 435 pp., folio, MS. 

1 747-1 748. Dr. Tafel and Dr Kahl. 1 859-1 868. 

93. Memorable Things. Part II. 516 pp., folio. 1 747-1 748. 

Spiritual Diary, Part I. Vols. I. and II. Dr. Tafel. 
1 844- 1 845. 

94. Heavenly Arcana in Genesis. Five volumes, 4to. London, 

1747-1758. 

95. Heavenly Arcana in Exodus. Three volumes, 4to. Lon- 

don, 1747-1758. 

96. Memorable Things. Part III., MS. 1 748-1 750. Spirit- 

ual Diary, Part II. Dr. Tafel. 1843. 
29 



45 O APPENDIX. 

97. Memorable Things. Part IV. 134 pp., i6mo, MS. 1750- 

175 1. Spirittial Diary, Part IV. Dr. Tafel. 1843. 

98. Index to Notes and Memorable Things. 988 pp., folio, MS. 

1 748-1 75 1. Spiritual Diary, Part V. Dr. Tafel. 1846- 

1847. 
99-« Memorable Things. Part V. 602 pp., 8vo, MS. 1752-1765. 

Spiritual Diary, Part III. 
99/ Index to Memorable Things. Parts III.-V. 100 pp., folio, 

MS. 1752-1765. Spiritual Diary, Part VI.- Dr. 

Tafel. 

100. Index to Arcana Ccelestia. 1749-1756. London, 18 15. 

101. Heaven and Hell. 272 pp., 4to. London, 1758. 

102. The White Horse. 1757-1758. 23 pp., 4to. London, 1758. 

103. The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine. 1757— 

1758. 156 pp., 4to. London, 1758. 

104. The Earths in our Solar System and in the Starry Heaven. 

1 756-1758. 72 pp., 4to. London, 1758. 
105 The Last Judgment. 1757-1758. 55 pp., 410. London, 
1758. 

106. The Apocalypse Explained. Four volumes, 1992 pp., 4to r 

MS. 1757-1759- Four volumes, London, 1785-17S9. 
Photolith. 

107. The Athanasian Creed. 42 pp., 8vo, MS. 1759. London, 

1840. 

108. The Lord. 7 pp., 8vo, MS. 1759. London, 1840. 

109. Summary Exposition of the Prophets and Psalms. 1759- 

1760. Dr. Tafel. i860. 

no. Papers for Swedish Diet. 100 pp., folio, MS. 1760. R. 
L. Tafel's Documents (nos. 174-196). 1875. 

in. The Last Judgment. 100 pp., folio, MS. 1760. Spiritual 
Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel, 1846. Photo- 
lith. 

112. The Spiritual World. 30 pp., folio, MS. 1760. Spiritual 

Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel, 1S46. Photolith. 

113. The Sacred Scripture. MS. 1761. Spiritual Diary, 

Part VII. App. 2. Dr. Tafel, 1854. Photolith. 

114. The Precepts of the Decalogue. 6 pp., 8vo, MS. 1761. 

Spiritual Diary, Part VII., pp. 38-41. Dr. Tafel, 1846. 
Photolith. 

115. On Faith. 2 pp., folio, MS. 1761. Spiritual Diary, Part 

VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel, 1846. Photolith. 

116. Doctrine of the Lord. 64 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1763. 

117. Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. 54pp.,4to. Amster- 

dam, 1763. 



APPENDIX. 



451 



118. Doctrine of Life. 36 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1763. 

119. Doctrine of Faith. 23 pp., 410. Amsterdam, 1763. 

120. Continuation concerning the Last Judgment. 28 pp., 4to. 

Amsterdam, 1763. 

121. The Mode of Inlaying Marble. Translation for Royal 

Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, June, 1763. R. L. 
Tafel's Documents (no. 202). 

122. The Divine Love. 22 pp., folio, MS. 1762-1763. 

123. The Divine Wisdom. 46 pp., folio, MS. 1763. Both the 

above in Appendix to 1 he Apocalypse Explained. 1789. 
Ph otolith. 

124. Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the 

Divine Wisdom. 151 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1763. 

125. Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence. 214 

pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1764. 

126. Doctrine of Charity. 49 pp., folio, MS. 1764. London, 

1840. Photolith. 

127. The Apocalypse Revealed. 629 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 

766. 

128. New Method of finding Longitude. 8 pp., 4to. Amster- 

dam, 1766. 

129. On the Horse and Hieroglyphics. MS. As Appendix to 

no. 102, and in R. L. TafeFs Documents (no. 300). 

130. Index to The Apocalypse Revealed. 75 pp., 4to, MS. 

1766. London, 181 5. 

131. Five Memorable Relations. 13 pp., folio, MS. 1766. 

Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846. 

132. Conversations with Angels. 3 pp., folio, MS. 1766. Spirit- 

ual Diary, Part II. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846. Photo- 
lith. 

133. First Treatise on Conjugial Love. MS. 1 766-1 767. 

Known only by Indexes, covering two thousand num- 
bers, which have been photolithographed. 

134. Memorable Things on Marriage. 19 pp., folio, MS. 1767. 

Spiritual Diary, Part V 'II. App. 4. Dr. Tafel. 1854. 

135. Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love. 1767- 

1768. 328 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1768. 

136. The Natural and the Spiritual Sense of the Word. MS. 

1768. Sent to Oetinger. R. L. Tafel's Documents 
(no. 238). 

137. Justification and Good Works. MS. 1768. Spiritual 

Diary, Part VII., section 5. Dr. Tafel. 1854. 

138. Sketch of the Doctrine of the New Church. MS. 1768. 

Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846. 



452 APPENDIX. 

139. Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church. 

1 768-1 769. 67 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 1769. 

140. Intercourse between the Soul and the Body. London, 

1769. 

141. Answer to a Letter from a Friend [Rev. T. Hartley]. 3 pp., 

4to. London, 1769. 

142. Nine Questions concerning the Trinity, and Answers. 6 

pp., 4to, MS. 1769. London, 1775. 

143. Canons of the New Church. 45 pp., folio, MS. 1769. 

London, 1840. 

144. Confirming Passages of the Old and New Testaments. 

1769. 39 pp., folio, MS. Dr. Tafel. 1845. 

145. The True Christian Religion. 541 pp., 4to. Amsterdam, 

1771. 

146. Notes for The True Christian Religion. 23 pp., folio, MS. 

1770. R. L. Tafel's Documents (no. 302). 

147. Ecclesiastical History of the New Church. 1 p., folio, MS. 

1771. R. L. Tafel's Docui7ients (no. 301). 

148. Summary of the Coronis to The True Christian Religion. 

Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. Dr. Tafel. 1846. 
5 pp., folio, MS. 1771. — English edition, London, 1807. 

149. Coronis, or Appendix, to The True Christian Religion. 

MS. 1771. London, 1780. — English editions, London 
and Manchester, 1810. 

150. The Consummation of the Age. 15 pp., folio, MS. 1771. 

Spiritual Diary, Part VII. App. 1. Dr. Tafel. 1846. 

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS BOOK. 

A. C Arcana Coelestia. 

A. E The Apocalypse Explained. 

A. R The Apocalypse Revealed. 

Adv Adversaria. 

C. L Conjugial Love. 

D. L. & W The Divine Love and Wisdom. 

D. P The Divine Provide7ice. 

H. D. . . The New J erusale?n and its Heavenly Doctrine. 

H. & H Heaven and Hell. 

Int. S. & B Intercourse of the Soul and Body. 

L. J The Last Judgment. 

S. D Spiritual Diary. 

S. S The Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. 

T. C. R The True Christiajt Religion. 



APPENDIX. 453 

XV. 
PRINCIPAL DATES IN SWEDENBORG'S LIFE. 

1688. January 29. Born at Stockholm, and lived there till 
1692. 

1692. Spring: family removed to Vingaker; November, to 
Upsal. 

1703. At Upsal. The family removed to Brunsbo. Sister 
Anna married : perhaps Emanuel remained with her at Upsal. 

1709. Graduated at Upsal; went home to Brunsbo. Pub- 
lished thesis. 

1710.-1713. At London pursuing studies. 

1713. At Utrecht and Paris for a year. 

1 7 14. September, at Rostock. 

1715. April, at Grief swalde, publishing Came7ia Borea. 

1 71 5. Returned home ; worked on the Dcedalus and Algebra. 

1 716. Appointed Assessor Extraordinary. 

1 71 7. Received in the College of Mines. 
1716-1718. Worked with Polhem for Charles XII. 
1 719-1720. Pursues studies. 

1 72 1. Spring: to Holland and Leipsic publishing Miscel- 
laneous Observations, and studying metals. 

1722. Returns home, and tries to introduce improved methods 
of working copper. 

1723. At the College of Mines, in regular attendance. 

1724. July 15, appointed Ordinary Assessor; regularly em- 
ployed till 1733. 

1733. May, to Leipsic, to publish Opera Philosophica. 

1734. July, at the College of Mines and the Diet, regularly 
till 1736. 

1736. July, went to Paris to pursue anatomical studies. 

1738. March 12, left Paris for Italy, on same studies. 

1739. May, arrived again in Paris. December, finished the 
Economy of the Animal Kingdo7n i and went to Amsterdam to 
publish it. 

1740. November, at the College of Mines till 1743. 

1743. July, went to Amsterdam and the Hague, to print The 
Animal Kingdom. Had remarkable dreams in the autumn, and 
afterwards. 

1744. May, arrived in London. First revelation, according 
to Gjorwell. 



454 APPENDIX. 

1745. April, first open vision. Wrote The Worship and Love 
of God. August, returned to Stockholm, and was at the College 
of Mines till July, 1747; also writing A dversaria and Biblical 
Index. Retired from the College. 

1 747. February, began the Spiritual Diary. August, arrived 
in Holland. Celestial change of state. Wrote the first volume 
of the Arcana Coelestia. 

1748. October, arrived in London to publish the "Arcana." 

1749. Summer: in Amsterdam; to Aix-la-Chapelle for the 
winter. 

1750. Spring: in Stockholm. Continued the "Arcana" till 
1758. The " Diary " was continued till 1765. 

1 755-1 762. Sundry Memorials to the Diet. Wrote The Apoca- 
lypse Explai?ied. 

1 762. To Amsterdam. Published the Four Leading Doctrines. 

1763. At Amsterdam. Published The Divine Love a?id Wis- 
dom and The Divine Providence. 

1764. At Stockholm. 

1765. Summer: at Amsterdam, to publish The Apocalypse 
Revealed. 

1766. Spring: to London; September, to Stockholm. 

1768. Spring: to Amsterdam, to publish Conjugial Love. 

1769. March, at Amsterdam; published "Brief Exposition." 
April, to Paris and London ; October, to Stockholm. 

1770. July, to Amsterdam, to publish The True Christian 
Religion. 

1 771. July, at Amsterdam; finished The True Christian Re- 
ligion, and went to London. 

1772. March 29, died in London. 



XVI. 
BIOGRAPHIES OF SWEDENBORG. 

1769. Autobiography in a letter to the Rev. Thomas Hartley, 
See p. 323. 

1772. Eulogy before the Royal Academy of Sciences, Stock- 
holm, by Samuel Sandels. See p. 404. 

1790. Life of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, in New-Jeru- 
salem Magazine. London. 

1806. Assessor Swedenborg^s Life, in Danish. Copenhagen, 
by S. H. Walden. 



APPENDIX. 



455 



1820. Emanuel Swedenborg, in a Journal of Biography. 
Upsal. See R. L. Tafel's Documents, no. 288. 

1827. Biography of Swedenborg, by the Rev. D. G. Goyder. 
pp. 40. 

1 83 1. Life of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Nathaniel Hobart. 
Boston, pp. 188. 

1 839-1 845. Collectioti of Documents respecting the Life and 
Character of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Dr. J. F. I. Tafel. Tu- 
bingen. — English editions published in Manchester, 1841, 1855. 
New York, by Professor Bush, 1847. 

1840. Swedenborg, in the Penny-Cyclopaedia, by Dr. J. J. G. 
Wilkinson. 

1 84 1. Life of Swedenborg, by the Rev. B. F. Barrett. New 
York. pp. 160. 

1849. Biographical Sketch of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Elihu 
Rich. London pp. 192. 

1849. Emanuel Swedenborg ; a Biography , by James John 
Garth Wilkinson. London, pp. 370. 

1849. Emanuel Swedenborg, in Biographical Lexicon. Upsal. 
pp. 60. 

185 1. Life of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Nathaniel Hobart; 
third edition ; prepared by Benjamin Worcester. Boston, pp. 
280. 

1852. Memoir of Swedenborg, by the Rev. O. Prescott Hiller, 
in his "Gems from the Writings of Swedenborg." 

1854. Swedenborg ; a Biography and Exposition, by Edwin 
Paxton Hood. London, pp. 402. 

1854. Life of Swedenborg, by the Rev. W. M. Fernald, first 
published in his Compendiwn. pp. 128. 

1856. Life of Swedenborg for Youth, by. Mrs. S. P. Doughty. 
Boston. 

1856. Swedenborg ; His Life and Writings, by William 
White. London. 

i860. Emanuel Swedenborg, for the Swedish Academy, in 
Memorial, by Bernhard von Beskors. 

1863. Emanuel de Swedenborg, sa Vie, ses Ecrits, etc., by 
M. Matter, Hon. Counsellor of the University. Paris, pp. 436. 

1867. Memoir of Swedenborg, by the Rev. O. P. Hiller. 
Chicago, pp. 72. 

1867. Emanuel Swedenborg; his Life and Writings, by 
William White. London. 2 vols. pp. 1278. 

1868. The same in one volume. 

1872. Emanuel Swedenborg; an Outline of his Life and 



456 APPENDIX. 

Writings, by a "Bible Student" (the Rev. John Hyde). Lon- 
don, pp. 120. 

1875. Emanuel Swedenborg, in Tales from Swedish History, 
by A. Fryxell. Stockholm, pp. 120. 

1 875-1 877. Docu7nents concerni?ig the Life and Character of 
Emanuel Swedenborg, by the Rev. R. L. Tafel ; published by 
the Swedenborg Society. London. 3 vols., royal octavo, pp. 
2107. [This is a work of great labor, conducted under extra- 
ordinary facilities; it is well-nigh exhaustive, and indispensable 
to the student of its subject.] 

1876. Emanuel Swedenborg, a Biographical notice. Paris. 

1877. E?nanuel Swedenborg, the Spiritual Columbus, by 
U. S. E. [Speirs.] London, pp. 216. 

1882. The Ma?i a?id his Mission, by the Rev. B. F. Barrett. 
pp. 60. 

1883. Emanuel Swedenborg, The Man and his Works, by 
Edmund Swift, Jr. London, pp. 218. [A clear and excellent 
summary of facts about Swedenborg and his writings.] 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Abbey and Overton, cited, 5, 425. 

Abram, 222, 232, 251, 270. 

Academy of Sciences at Paris, 97 ; 
Royal at Stockholm, 98, 406 ; 
Imperial, Russia, 98, 406. 

Acta Enidilorum, 406. 

Adam, 270. 

Addison, Joseph, yj. 

Adoration of saints, 107. 

Affection, spiritual ; looks, natu- 
ral, 296. 

Agassiz, Louis, App. XI. 

Alchemists, 199. 

Alcuin, 115. 

Algebra, Swedenborg's, 64, 67, 70. 

Almanac, with entries of sowings, 
etc., 394. 

Altartaflan, 394. 

Alzog, cited, 146. 

Amsterdam, Swedenborg visits, 
105, 261, 316; lodgings at, 341, 
342. 

Anatomy, Swedenborg studies, 77, 
81, 101, 147, 152; use of studies, 
297. 

Angels awaiting the last judg- 
ment, 282. 

Angels, classes of, 251 ; conversing 
about the One God, 256-259; in 
charge of such matters as inter- 
views with spirits, 387 ; speaking 
through Swedenborg's mouth, 

Answer, to inquiry about Prince of 
Saxe-Coburg, 390; to Thomas 
Hartley's letter,3i4; to his nine 
questions, 314. 

Apocalypse briefly explained, 301- 
303- 



Apostles visit Swedenborg, 338. 
Arabian philosophy, 116. 
Aristotle, in, 142, 166. 
Asceticism, not approved, 132. 
Assessorship Extraordinary, 57, 

59, 60, 83, 87 ; Ordinary, 91 ; 

retired from, 261, 262. 
Assyria, 251, 320. 
Astronomy, Swedenborg's interest 

in, 37, 38, 47, 70. 
Athanasius, 259. 
Atmospheres, 293, 294. 
Augsburg Confession, 357, 364. 
Autograph, of Swedenborg, 320. 
Axmar, 91. 



B. 



Babylon, 284, 285, 302. 

Bacon, Francis, 117. 

Bacon, Roger, 116. 

Barham, Francis, 45. 

Barnard, Sir John, cited, 5. 

"Bebel, visited by Swedberg, 17. 

Bede, 115. 

Behm, Brita, 75, 91. 

Behm, Sara, 29, 73, 74. 

Benediction, the peace of the, 237. 

Bengel, John Albert, 2, 7, 12, 13. 

Benzelius, 78. 

Benzelius, Eric, the younger, 40, 
44, 46, 49, 53,61,63, 64,71. 

Benzelius, Ericus, marriage, 29; 
ennobled, 30 ; correspondence 
with Swedenborg, 35-82 ; sent 
him his share from his father's 
hymn-book, 22; appointed arch- 
bishop, 81. 

Benzelius, Lars, J2> 74> 75» 9 T > I0 °* 

Bergstrom, Eric, 339. 

Berkeley, 117, 119. 



460 



INDEX. 



Beyer, Dr. Gabriel A., 33, 351,364, 
365,370; collection of sermons, 
353 ; indexes, 350, 370 ; letters 
from E. S. to, 351-356, 366. 

Bible, prohibited to laity, 116; 
Hebrew, all of Swedenborg's 
library in London, 338, — given 
to Ferelius, 340; Swedish, re- 
vised by Swedberg, 21, 22, 30. 

Bignon, Abbe, 41. 

Bishop of St. Asaph's predic- 
tion, 4. 

Bishops of England, treatment of 
Swedenborg, 336 ; treatment of, 
in Memorable Relations, 351. 

Bjelke, Count, 363. 

Bohme's writings, 412 ; Sweden- 
borg asked about, 253. 

Bolton, cited, 119. 

Bonde, Count, 363. 

Boneauschold, 150. 

Bourignon, Antoinette, 412, Ap- 
pendix II. 

Boyle, 81. 

Brain, the seat of the soul, 156, 
163; work on, 161. 

Brask, Bishop, 61. 

Breathing, different modes of, 200, 
201 ; with a certain cadence fol- 
lowing choirs in heaven, 256. 

Bremner's Excursions, cited, 393. 

Brockmer's false statements de- 
nied, 340. 

Bromell, Dr. 54. 

Brown's Estimate, of the Manners 
of the Times, 3. 

Brunner, Swedberg's preceptor, 
16, 20. 

Bruno, Giordano, 117, 412. 

Brunsbo, Swedberg removed to, 
25; burned, 25, 26; motto over 
gate-way, 26. 

Brunswick, 92 ; Duke of, 96. 

Bull Unigenitus, 1, 11, 390, App. I. 

Bullernassia, Anna, 29. 

Bullernsesius, Petrus, 29. 

Burkhardt's account of Sweden- 
borg, 340. 

Burnet, Bishop, 4. 



C. 



Cabot, 117. 
Cairns, Dr. John, 9. 



Calculus, essay on, 67. 

Camus, 98. 

Canaan, signification of, 266. 

Canal project, 58, 61-63, 68-70. 

Carlscrona, 58. 

Carlsbad, 94. 

Carlsberg, 103. 

Carlsgraf, 72. 

Carlyle, Life of Frederick the 
Great, 6 ; Signs of the Times, 
6; Charles XII., 45, 118, 119. 

Carriage left at Gottenburg, 352. 

Cassel, 92. 

Castel, William, 348. 

Catechism of Dr. Beyer, 351. 

Catechisms given by Swedberg to 
soldiers, 18. 

Catholic services, 93-95, 107. 

Causes of things, essay on, by 
Swedenborg, 67. 

Cedarholm, 63. 

Celestial kingdom, 250. 

Censor of books, 77. 

Changuion's bookstore, 341. 

Charity, beginning to be more 
spoken of, 354. 

Charlemagne, 115. 

Charles XI., dealings with Swed- 
berg, 18-20; trusted nobody, 20 
death, 48. 

Charles XII., dealings with Swed 
berg, 23, 24, 65 ; with Swe 
denborg, 56-64, 70 ; draining 
strength of Sweden, 24, 53, 69 
return to Sweden, 44-49, 54, — 
not again to Stockholm, 55 
letter from, 59; new mode of 
counting, 63-68 ; against Fred 
erickshall, 72-75; death, 75 
character of, by Swedenborg, 76. 

Children, Swedenborg's interest 
in, 341, 343. 39 2 5 their instinct, 
396; blind girl, 399. 

Chillingworth, cited, 2. 

Christian Church, 113, 274, 301. 

Church, has been closed by falses, 
can be opened only by truths 
received from the Lord, 369. 

Cities, in spiritual world, 322. 

Citv of God, 145, 147, 165; the 
Holy City, 214, 303. 

Clarke, J F-, 416. 

Claudius Matthius, 372. 

Clergy, tax on, 24. 



INDEX. 



46I 



Clergyman, who went to hell, 382. 

Clissold, Rev. Augustus, 96. 

Clowes, Rev. J., 209; letter to, 
from Hartley, 325. 

Coleridge, S. T., cited, 144, 317, 
412. 

Collection of Sermons by Dr. 
Beyer, 353. 

College of Commerce, 52 ; of 
Mines, 57-60, 83, 87, 149, 261, 
262 ; Royal Medical, 78. 

Collin, Rev. Nicholas, 388. 

Colony, Swedenborg's doctrines 
good for, 333. See Swedish. 

Columbus, 117. 

Coming of the Lord, 198, 199, 281, 
283, 310, 315. 

Commerce and Manufactures, es- 
say on, 67. 

Comte, 113. 

Condillac, 117, 119. 

Confiscation, ordered of Sweden- 
borg's works, 359-361. 

Conjugial, the word, 305. 

Conjugial love, nature of, 290, 305- 
30S. 

Consistory, authorized to summon 
Drs. Beyer and Rosen, 359. 

Constantinople, Greek literature 
banished from, 116. 

Copper, exporting of, 276; new 
mode of working, 86. 

Copenhagen, 103. 

Corporeal life represents spiritual 
life, 159. 

Correspondences, 147, 160, 212. 

Cosmogony, 97. 

Council of Trent, 309. 

Counting heaps of balls in tri- 
angular form, 72. 

Creation, history of, 229 ; not out 
of nothing, 294 ; of man, to re- 
ceive Divine Love and Wisdom, 
295; Divine end in, 158, 165, 
299. 

CrelPs Biblical Concordance, 31. 

Criminals, their condition after 
death, 382. 

Cronhjelm, 47. * 

Cuno, John Christian, 340 ; ac- 
count of Swedenborg, 341-343 ; 
remonstrance of, 343. 

Currency, Swedenborg on, 276- 
278. 



D. 

Daler, value of, 21, 91. 

Danieli, 395, 414. 

Danielsson, Isak, 395. 

Dathan, 202. 

Decimal system of coins and meas- 
ures, 79. 

Degrees, 141, 144, 160, 212, 293. 

Deism, 3, 10, 11. 

Delft, 179. 

Delights, every one allowed to en- 
joy his own, 299. 

Demoralization, in England, 41. 

Desolation, of the Church, 1-12, 

3*5- 
Descartes, 56, 67, 117, 119, 124, 

I33>. U2, 412. 

Descriptions des Arts et des Metiers, 
406. 

Diet, Swedenborg takes his seat 
in, 87, — sends memorials to, 87- 
90, 275, — his intention of com- 
plaining to, 365, 366. 

Diet and Privy Council, resolve 
not to touch Swedenborg, 360. 

Dieterich, 31. 

Diseases depending on the mind 
do not leave at once after death, 

331- 

Divine end, realized in man's abil- 
ity to acknowledge God, 130 ; in 
creation, 158, 165, 299. 

Divine Providence, nature and 
laws of, 297 ; governs the life of 
man, 171, 173, 179. 

Dixon, Captain, ^6, 352. 

Doctrines of Swedenborg drawn 
from the Word, 172 ; best for a 
colony (Hopken), 333 ; lead men 
to good, 383 ; in substance, that 
men should go to the Lord Jesus 
Christ directly, 364. 

Documents, of J. F. I. Tafel, 316. 

Documents, of R. L. Tafel, 15, 66, 
82. 

Doddridge, 10. 

Dog, Swedenborg dreams of, 185. 

Dorner, J. A., cited, 2, 3, 8, 10, 367, 
App. III., IV. 

Dragon, 193, 283, 302. 

Dragoons, furnished by the clergy, 
24. 

Dreams, of Swedenborg, 173-197. 



462 



INDEX. 



Dreams, may be useful, 381. 

Dresden, 92-94. 

Duke of Brunswick, 96. 

Dumas, Chemical Philosophy, 85. 

Dutch, 105. 



E. 



Earth, approaching the sun, 76, 
78. 

Earths, other, spirits of, 254, 255. 

Edwin, King, 412. 

Edzardus, visited by Swedberg, 
18. 

Egypt, 251, 320. 

Ekeblad, Count, 336, 339, 363. 

Eleonora, Hedwig, 48. 

Eleonora, Ulrica, wife of Charles 
XL ; death of, 48. 

Eleonora, Ulrica, sister of Charles 
XII. ; Swedberg petitions, 23, 
25, 54; ennobles his family, 30, 
78; assumes place of Charles 
XII. in his absence, 25 (note) ; 
becomes Queen, 78. 

Elfvius, 39, 43, 53, 65. 

Elsinore, 61, 329, 330. 

Emerson, R. W., 168, 412, 416. 

Empress Elizabeth, in the other 
world, 330, 378. 

Ennoblement of Swedberg's fam- 
ily, 29, 30, 78. 

End of the earth, theory of, 6y. 

Epistles, their authority and use, 

Esberg, 70. 
Eustachius, 136. 
Evangelical churches, 314. 
Evelyn, John, cited, 4. 
Evil, state of the, after death, 218- 
223. 



F. 



Fac-simile, of Swedenborg's writ- 
ing, 320. 

Fahlstrom, 62. 

Fahlun, 15. 

Fahlun Board of Mines, 87. 

Faith, superior to reason, 153. 

Faith alone, beginning to be called 
Moravian faith, 354. 

Faith and good works, 146. 



Fenelon, Abp., App. VI., VII. . 

Ferelius, Rev. Arvid, 337, ^8. 

Fichte, 113,, App. III. 

Filenius, Bishop, 359, 364. 

Finance, Swedenborg on, 88, 90, 
276, 278. 

Fire and colors, 67, 85. 

Fire at Upsal,.23 ; Brunsbo, 25, 26; 
Stockholm, 346, 348 ; London, 
from which Apocalypse Ex- 
plained was saved, 287. 

Fires of hell, 79. 

Flamsteed, t>7- 

Flamy lights and other signs, 173. 

Flood, first understanding of, 230. 

Flying machines, 43, 54, 55. 

Formida Concordice, 309, 357, 358, 

3 6 4- 

France, 40, 107, 108. 

Franciscan monks, 106. 

Frederic, King of Sweden from 
1720 till 1751, 86, 103, 151, 261, 
262. 

Frederic, Adolphus, King of Swe- 
den from 1751 till 177 1, 332, 335, 

359- . 
Frederic V. of Denmark, 331. 
Frederickshall, 72, 75. 
Frederick the Great, Life of, 6, 335. 
French Revolution, 7, 120, App. 

VII. 



G. 

Galileo, 117. 
Gamaliel, 334. 
Gardener and wife, Swedenborg's, 

379. 3 8o > 394-400. 
Geier, 31. 

Gentiles, in the Judgment, 285. 
Genuine Christianity, Swedenborg 

calls his doctrine, 358. 
Geology, studied by Swedenborg, 

77, 78. 
Gerard, Prof. Alexander, 327. 
Gerhardi, 31. 
German thinkers, 168. 
Gjorwell, account of Swedenborg, 

384- 
Glorification in heaven, 256, 283. 
Goethe, theory of color, 85. 
Golden Age, 273. 
Gortz, Baron, 70. 



INDEX. 



463 



Gottenburg, 35, 58, 63, 348. 

Gottenburg Consistory, Minutes, 
two letters of Swedenborg 
printed in, 358. 

Government, Swedenborg on, 
277-280. 

Grabe's Septuagint, 37. 

Gray, Asa, App. XI. 

Greatest Man, heaven so called, 
222, 271, 299. 

Greek philosophy, 115. 

Griefswalde, visited by Sweden- 
borg, 44. 

Grotius, 142. 

Gullspangelf, 58, 61. 

Gustav, brother of Benzelius, 48. 

Gustavus Adolphus, 415. 

Guyon, Madame, 412, App. VI. 

Gylienborg, Countess, 72. 



H. 

Hagenbach, 2, 8, 372, 374, 423. 

Hahn, Philip, M., App. III. 

Hale, E. E., 416. 

Halenius, Bishop, reproved by 
Swedenborg, illness, and change 
of heart, 391 ; his children at 
Swedenborg's house, 392. 

Halley, Dr., 39. 

Hamburg, 92, 152. 

Hamilton, Prof. Robert, Messi- 
ter's letter to, 327. 

Hammarberg, Mr., orders four 
copies of Swedenborg's works, 
366. 

Handel, 36, yj- 

Happiness, 408, 409. 

Harmony in the house, Sweden- 
borg required, 401, 408. 

Hart, John, Swedenborg's printer, 
340 ; seen in the other world, 
341 ; his son's account of Swe- 
denborg, 340, — who was fond 
of his little girl, 340. 

Hartley, David, Observations on 
Man, 4, 117. 

Hartley, Rev. Thomas, 314, 322- 

3 2 7- 

Hasselbom, 69. 

Head of the Swedish Church, 
according to Swedenborg, is 
the Houses of the Diet, they 



being the vicar of the Lord, 

365. 

Heart and Lungs, will and under- 
standing reside in, 295. 

Heaven, all created for, 299, 300 ; 

- evil allowed to go to, but can- 
not bear, 299 ; two kingdoms of, 
25, 296 ; as a whole corresponds 
to the Divine Human of the 
Lord, 271; seen opening before 
Swedenborg's eyes, 256 ; the 
three heavens, 293. 

Hell, permanence of, 218-223. 

Helvetius, De l'Esprit, 5. 

Heraclitus, 411. 

Herder, Johan G. von, App. III. 

Hess, Felix, Lavater inquires 
about, 371. 

Hesselius, 81. 

Hindmarsh, Robert, 314. 

Hire, De La, 41. 

Hjarne, 72, 73, y 7 . 

Hjelmar, 58, 61. 

Hobbes, 117. 

Holberg, Professor, 104. 

Holland visited by Swedberg, 17, 
to6; by Swedenborg, 40, 83. 

Hoog, the Misses, 342. 

Hopken, Count Anders Johan 
von, 279, 332, 334, 363. 

House of Clergy, committee re- 
port favorably for Dr. Beyer, 
359 ; not the only judge, accord- 
ing to Swedenborg, 379. 

Hume, David, 3, 11, 12, 117-119. 

Hyde, Zina, 388. 

Hymn, quoted by Swedberg, 31 ; 
by Swedenborg, 358. 

Hymn and psalm-book, by Swed- 
berg, 21, 22. 



I. 



Iderfjol, 72. 
Illustrare (note), 172. 
Illustration, 238-247. 
Incarnation, nature of, 208, 235, 

312, 313, App. IV. 
Infinite, should not be concluded 

on from the finite, 128. 
Influx, 236, 241, 243. 
Intellectual Repository, cited, 374. 
Iron Age, 274. 



464 



INDEX. 



Isaac, 222, 251. 

Isaksson, Daniel, 15, 29, 394,395. 

Israel, signification of, 320. 

Israelitish Church, 274. 

Italy, Swedenborg visits, 107. 



J- 



Jacob, 222, 251. 

James, cited, 210, 21 1. 

Jansenists, 11. 

Jerusalem, signification of, 266 ; 

in the world of spirits, called 

Sodom, 303. 
Jerusalem, New, 311, 328. 
Jesuits, 1, 11, 390, 415. 
Jews, carried Arabian philosophy 

through Europe, 116. 
John, the Baptist, 12, 14, 32; the 

Apostle, 32, nr, 285, 286, 301. 
Judgment, 7-13, 281-285,301,315. 
Jukes, Rev. Andrew, App. III. 
Jung-Stilling, J. H., 345, 373. 
Jupiter, spirits of, 254, 255. 



K. 

Kant, 117, 119, 124, 125; cited, 

348, 349, App. IX. 
King's Arms Tavern, Swedenborg 

at > 339- 
Kinnekiille, proposed observatory 

at, 47. 
Konauw, Nicolam, 342. 
Korah, 202. 
Kramer, 104. 
Kurtz, cited, 7, 345, 367, 371. 



L. 



Lacombe, App. VII. 
La Mettrie, cited, 6. 
Lambert, Father, 421. 
Lecky, W. E. H., App. V. 
Lavater, John Casper, 371, 372. 
Leibnitz, 3, 117, 133, 142, 166. 
Leipsic, 84, 92, 95 ; letter from, 

98. 
Lewes, George Henry, cited, 113, 

119. 
Lewis, John, 264. 



Leyden, 41. 

Life, bodily typical of spiritual, 

159- . 

Linkoping, 103, 391. 

Little girl allowed in Sweden- 
borg's garden, 392, 401. 

Locke, John, 106, 117-119, 133, 
142, 166. 

Logos, 112, 231. 

London, Swedenborg first visits, 
35 ; lodgings at, 263, 4or. 

Longitude, Swedenborg's mode 
of finding, 38, 39, 41, 47- 

Lost Receipt, 349. 

Lord, The, so called without other 
names, 269 ; as the Sun of 
heaven, 233, 253, 288, 292-294; 
yet not the Sun itself, but with- 
in it, 258. 

Louis XIV., 390. 

Louis XV., 11, 98, 390. 

Love, of truth for the sake of 
truth, 172, 240, 246, 275 ; of 
one's own works, 185, 194-196. 

Ludolphus, visited by Swedberg, 

Ludwig (Louis) Rudolph, 84, 96. 
Lunstedt, captain, 74, 75. 
Luther, Martin, 146, 309, 358. 



M. 



Magnetic theory, 96, 98. 

Mahometans in Spain, 116; in 
the Judgment, 285. 

Man, his freedom and power of 
acting, 297, 298; not thinking 
from himself, 298, 299; created 
for heaven, 299; habit of thought 
carried with him, 346 ; his first 
estate, and change at this day, 
123. 

Manderstrom, 171. 

Manuscript, Swedenborg's, print- 
ed from without a copyist, 381 ; 
harder to read as he grew older, 
381 ; fac-simile of, 320. 

Marble table of Swedenborg, 377. 

Marquis de Thome, 98. 

Marriage, Dr. Beyer asked Swe- 
denborg to write on, 351. 

Marshall's microscopes, 40. 

Marteville, Madame, 349. 



INDEX. 



465 



Mathematics, studied by Sweden- 
borg' 35. 39. 40, 42. 

Mathesius, 338, 339. 

Matheson, Kev. George, 14, 116, 
App. VIII., XII. 

Matter, M., 98, 280, 412, 414, 
App. X. 

Memorable relations, why in- 
serted, 332, ^23- 

Memorials to Diet, 87-90, 275; 
Hopken's account of, 332. 

Merchant, John, 265. 

Merchant's story, 345-347. 

Mercury, spirits of, 255. 

Messiter, Dr. H., 326-328. 

Microscope, described by Swe- 
denborg, 40. 

Mill, J. S., 113. 

Ministers, new, necessary for the 
New Church, 354. 

Miracles, do not happen now, 363. 

Mission of Swedenborg, 318-320. 

Morals in Sweden, 307. 

Moravians, 193. 

Morell, J. D., 166. 

Morner, Count, 70. 

Moser, Rev. Mr., 388. 

Mosheim, cited, 1. 

Most Ancient Church, 252-254, 
270, 273. 

Mother of Swedenborg, 29. 

Music, Swedberg fond of, 31 ; 
studied by Swedenborg, 35; 
enjoyed, 331. 



N. 

Naarden, 105. 

Nature, everything in, adores God, 
132. 

Natural degree loves self, spirit- 
ual degree loves the Lord, 300. 

Natural things lead to spiritual, 

3°9- 
Nebular hypothesis, 125, 126, 

App. IX. 
New Church, which is the New 

Jerusalem, 240, 311, 315, 319; 

coming of, 328, 335, 336, 353, 

355, 365; faith of, 310, 311. 
New Heaven, 302, 310, 311; not 

yet (1766) fully established, 353, 

365. 



New Jerusalem, 311, 328. 

New-Jerusalem Magazine, cited, 
218. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, studied Apoc- 
alypse, 120; cited, 285; Swe- 
denborg studies, 36, 120 ; his 
Principia, 37 ; theory of color, 

§5- 
Nexus, between the Infinite and 

the Finite, 129-133; restored 

by the Messiah, 132. 
Nilson, Isaac, 15 {note). 
Noah, 230, 270. 
Nordencrantz, 277, 278. 
Nordenskold, cited, 328. 
Norkoping, 68. 

Norway, expedition against, 75. 
Noxious animals and plants, 295. 
Nunc licet, 228. 
Nya Kyrkan i Sverige, 280. 
Nyren, Magnus, App. IX. 



O. 

Oberlin, Father, 373-375. 
Observatory projected by Sweden- 
borg, 47, 62, 67. 
Oetinger, 171, 367, 368, 370. 
Oldenburg, Kings of House of, 

33 1 - 
Olofsohn, Olof, death predicted, 

389. 

Oronoskow, inquiry about Em- 
press Elizabeth, 378. 

Otteson, Nils, 15 {note). 

Otto, 15 {note). 

Outer mind had still something of 
sadness, 213. 

Ovid, 43, 47, 305, 332. 



P. 



Palmer, cited, 3. 

Palmquist, visited by Sweden- 
borg, 41. 

Paris, visited by Swedenborg, 40, 
107, 108. 

Parsons, Theophilus, App. XL 

Particles, theory of, 66, 67, 85, 

i75- 
Pattison, Mark, cited, 5. 
Paul, cited, 209. 



30 



466 



INDEX. 



Paulus ab Indagine, assumed 
name of Cuno, 343. 

Peace from the presence of the 
Lord, 236, 237. 

Peckitt, Henry, 287. 

Peirce, Benjamin, App. XL 

Pernety, cited, 392. 

Persecution of Drs. Beyer and 
Rosen, 356, 359. 

Peter, 338 ; cited, 210. 

Peter the Great, 44. 

Pfter III., story of, 347. 

Philosopher believes with diffi- 
culty, 179. 

Philosophy, Arabian, 116; Greek, 
111,115; Swedenborg's studies 
of, 109-168; use of, no; in 
agreement with revelation, and 
study of, should begin from 
God, 127. 

Pietism, 12; favored by Swedberg, 
25, App. VI. 

Plato, in, 166. 

Poetry of Swedenborg, 26 {note), 

34, 39, 43, 44, 46, 47, 5 2 - 

Polhem (Polhammar), 38, 44, 49- 
57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 76 ; daughters, 
62, 71, 72. 

Politics, of Swedenborg, 278, 280. 

Pope, Alexander, 4, 37. 

Portraits, of Swedenborg, 96, App. 
XIII. 

Prague, 92. 

Prayer, effects of, 106, 107. 

Pride in what one has written 
overcome by laying it away for 
a while, 138. 

Prince Augustus William, of 
Prussia, 336. 

Professorship at first desired by 
Swedenborg, 47, 51, — then de- 
clined, 65, 6S. 

Progress of religious thought, 314. 

Prophets wrote from dictation, 
242. 

Proof-reading, faulty, of Sweden- 
borg's works, 381. 

Property and income of Swed- 
berg, 18, 21, 27, 40, 72> 74; of 
Swedenborg, 39, 73-75, 83, 91, 
101, 151, 263. 

Proprium, doctrine of, 213, 317. 

Protestant Church, decline of, I, 
11. 



Provo, Peter, 339, 340. 

Psalter, prohibited in language of 

people, 116. 
Purpose of creation, 158, 165. 



Queen Anne's reign, 36. 
Queen Louisa Ulrica, 336; story 

of, 330, 334, 346, 348, 388. 
Queen Ulrica Eleonora. See Ele- 

onora. 
Quesnel, Father, n. 
Question, at issue, whether we 

may go direct to the Saviour, 

357- 



R. 



Raleigh, Sir Walter, 117. 

Rational Psychology, 141, 142, 
163. 

Reason, development of, 1 13-123; 
limitations of, 1 18-120, 123, 
128, 129 ; its affirmation for ex- 
istence of God, 132; when per- 
plexed must go to revelation, 
and vice versa, 133; delightful 
faculty of, 137, 157. 

Receipt, story of the lost, 349; 
confirmed by Swedenborg, 346, 
348. 

Reception of Swedenborg's teach- 
ings, in five ways, 265 ; difficult 
with clergy, 353, 379. 

Reformation, 170. 

Reformed, in the Judgment, 285. 

Regeneration, nature of, 170, 178, 
197, 268, 269; effect of, 209. 

Regmim Minerale, Swedenborg's 
intended prosecution of, 149, 

IS 1 - 
Repentance, need of particular 

confession of sin, 305. 
Representation of correspondence 
■ of will and understanding with 

heart and lungs, 296. 
Representations, 159, 160, 248; 

of the Messiah in the sepulchre, 

248. 
Reucher, 81. 
Revelation, solely by the Word, 



INDEX. 



467 



172, 247 ; mediate and imme- 
diate, 247. 

Roberg, Dr., 58, 61, 66, 67. 

Robsahm, Carl, 203, 375-383. 

Roman Catholic Church, decline 
of, 1 ; reformation, 8 ; domina- 
tion, 115, 116, App. I.; service 

of ? 93-95*. T ?7- 

Roman Uathoiics, come into New 
Church more easily than the 
Reformed, 311 ; advancing in 
theology, 168. 

Rome, Church of, 302, 303. 

Rosen, Dr. Johan, 356, 364-367, 
370. 

Rosencrantz, 104. 

Rostock, visited by Swedenborg, 
42. 

Rotterdam, visited by Sweden- 
borg, 105. 

Royal Medical College, yy. 

Ruckerskold, 71. 

Rudolph, Ludwig, 96. 

Rules of life, 169, 405. 

Russians, approach of, 44. 



S. 



Saalfeld, Prince of S axe -Co- 
burg, fate of, 390. 

Saint Paul's Cathedral, 36, 37. 

Salvation, to be sure of being in 
the way of, 330. 

Salt Manufacture, 61, 62, 67. 

Sandels, Samuel, 72, 169, 404-408. 

Saxony, Duke of, 93. 

Schelling, cited, 12. 

Scherer, Professor, his stories of 
Swedenborg's spiritual inter- 
course, 389. 

Schleiden, Professor, 98. 

Schmidt, J., 31. 

Schmidt, Sebastian, 17, 31 ; Bible 
of, 17, 229. 

Schutenhjelm, 104. 

Schwegler, History of Philosophy, 
cited, 6, 12, 112. 

Scott, Samuel, diary of, 324. 

Scripture, passages cited or ex- 
plained : Genesis i., p. 229, 267- 
270 ; xlvii. 22, p. 24. Exodus 
xxxi. 3, p. 240 ; xxxi. 13, p. 273. 
Numbers, xxiv. 4, p. 370. Isaiah 



xix. 23, 25, p. 319. Daniel ii. 
43, p. 274 ; v. 11, p. 370. Zech- 
ariah, xiv. 19, p. 336. Matthew 
xxiv. 3, p. 13 ; xxviii. 18, p. 364; 
xxviii. 30, p. 13. John i. 1-14, 

p- 3 X 3 ; ? v - 5 2 > p- 9 ; xiii. 13, 

p. 270 ; xiv. 6, pp. 323, 369; xiv. 
6-11, p. 270; xiv. 17, p. 121; 
xxi. 18, p. 114. Acts xvii. 18- 
34, p. 145; xix. 21, p. 368. Ro- 
mans iii. 28, p. 146. 2 Corinth- 
ians xii. 2, p. 218. Colossians 
ii. 9, p. 358. 2 Timothy iii. 1- 
10, p. 145. James iii. 14-17, 
p. 211. 1 John v. 20, 21, p. 343. 
Revelation iv. p. 301 ; xii. 14, 
p. 355; xxi. 1, 2, p. 353; xxi. 2, 
P : 335 i xxi. 2, 5, pp. 309, 320. 

Scriptures, interpretation of, 149, 
213, 229. 

Searching of heart and reins, 159. 

Seeker, Archbishop, cited, 5. 

Second sight, in Sweden, 388 ; in 
Switzerland, ^73- 

" Self-formation," cited, 200. 

Semler, attacks the views of La- 
vater and Swedenborg, 372. 

Seneca, 34, 138, 140. 

Series and degrees, 141, 144, 160, 
212, 293. 

Service of Danish Church, 103 ; 
Roman Catholic Church, 93-95, 
107. 

Seven Years' War, 12. 

Shearsmith, Richard, 328, 401. 

Shibboleth, of Swedberg, 64, yy 

Ship-building, directions, 72. 

Sign, Swedenborg has the, 175. 

Silver Age, 273. 

Simons, 81. 

Sinclair, John, 118. 

Sjoberg, Captain, commissioned 
to buy Swedenborg's books, 
366. 

Skara, Swedberg's diocese, 25. 

Skinskatteberg, 74, 80, 83. 

Smithson, Rev. J. H., 316, 373. 

Socrates, 1 11, 414. 

Soul, in infancy, 154; nature of, 
162, 164; conclusion of, as to 
God, 128; forms the body to its 
own likeness, 134, 162 ; effort to 
reach, 135, 153. 

Souls, society oi, 164 ; in captivity, 



468 



INDEX. 



Swedenborg comforting, 282 ; 
liberated, 282, 283. 

Speech, heavenly, sound of, first 
heard; then the speech itself, 
256. 

Spence, Dr. William, cited, and 
account of, 328. 

Spener, 12 ; visited by Swedberg, 
17; App. VI. 

Spinoza, 117, 119, 412. 

Spirit, the, opposed by Sweden- 
borg, 174, 175 ; manner of speak- 
ing of, 192, 202, 235 ; the Holy 
Spirit, need of, 234, 244. 

Spirits, operation of, perceived be- 
fore seen, 173; not thought to 
be in human form, at first, 215- 
217 ; carried about to find their 
places in heaven, 282 ; great 
numbers being set in order, 353 ; 
danger of trusting, 234 ; do not 
know the manner of their death, 
nor recognize such a thing, 390; 
their senses, 217; world of, 
needing instruction, 284; ruled 
by the Lord, 235-237 ; of other 
earths, 254, 255. 

Spiritual intercourse of Sweden- 
borg believed, 347, 348, 368, 388. 

Spiritual life, represented in cor- 
poreal life, 159. 

Spiritual things now revealed, to 
be understood naturally and 
rationally, 368. 

Springer, Christopher, 334~33 6 > 
340. 

Spurgin, Dr., cited, 144. 

Starbo, 74, 80. 

Steele, Richard, 37. 

Stephen, Leslie, cited, 2, 4, 10. 

Stewart, Dugald, 106. 

Stiernhjelm, 54, 62. 

Stiernsund, 50, 55, 66. 

Stockholm, Charles XII. did not 
return to, 54, 55 ; described, 393 ; 
morals of, 307 (note) ; in world 
of spirits, 321. 

Stories of the Queen, etc., time of, 

35°- 
Story, of the Queen, 330, 334, 346, 
348, 388 ; of the fire at Stock- 
holm," 346, 348 ; of the lost re- 
ceipt, 346, 348, 349 ; of the mer- 
chant, 345-347 ; of the sparrow, 



412 ; Wetterbey's, of Sweden- 
borg, his family, and gardener 
and wife, 394-400. 

Stralsund, besieged, 45,49; Swe- 
denborg visits, 92, 131. 

Stromstadt, 70, 72. 

Sun, the seat of energy, 79 ; the 
Sun of heaven, 233, 253, 258, 
288, 292-294. 

Sundborg, 15 (note). 

SvardsjS, 29. 

Swedberg, Albrecht, 29. 

Swedberg, Anna, 29, 34; men- 
tioned by Swedenborg, 35, 40, 
44, 47-49, 53, 55, 58, 61, 64, 103; 
death of, 82. 

Swedberg, Catharina, 28, 29 ; 
daughter, 53 ; husband, 74. 

Swedberg, Daniel, 29. 

Swedberg, Eliezer, 28, 29. 

Swedberg family, ennobled, 29, 
30 ; strange thoughts in, 395, 
415 ; venerated Swedenborg, but 
thought him visionary, 396. 

Swedberg, Hedwig, 29, 40, 74. 

Swedberg, Jesper ; ancestry, 15; 
mother, 29; birth, 15; narrow 
escape, 15 ; sense of Divine pro- 
tection, 16, 30; early piety, 16; 
went to school at Upsaf, 16; 
suffered at school, 20 ; went to 
school at Lund, 16; developed 
youthful vanity, 16; pupil of 
Brunner, and learned better, 16 ; 
travelled in Denmark, 16; prac- 
tised preaching and received 
degree of M agister, 17; was 
married, 17; travelled in Eng- 
land, France, Holland, and Ger- 
many, 17 ; visited Bebel, Spener, 
Ludolphus, Schmidt, 17 ; visited 
Edzardus, 18 ; Swedish gram- 
mar, 17, 27; ordained, 18; ap- 
pointed chaplain, 18 ; gave cate- 
chisms to soldiers, 18; preached 
to Charles XL, 18; dealings 
with Charles XL, 18-21; op- 
posed by the court, 19 ; baptism 
of child, 19; improved schools, 
20; pastor at VingSker, 20, 21 ; 
a reformer, 21 ; professor, dean, 
and rector at Upsal, 21, 22 ; 
revised Swedish Bible, 21, 22, 
30; hymn and psalm book, 21, 



INDEX. 



469 



22 ; stone house at Upsal, 23 ; 
success at Upsal, 22, 23 ; ap- 
pointed bishop, 23 ; removed to 
Brunsbo, 25; dealings with Ul- 
rica Eleonora, 23, 25 ; dealings 
with Charles XII., 23, 24, 65 ; 
furnished dragoons, 24 ; labors 
as bishop, 25 ; motto over gate- 
way, 26; house at Brunsbo 
burned, 25, 26 ; pocket Bible, 
26 ; engraved portrait, 26 ; style 
of preaching, 25, 34 ; bishop of 
Swedish colonies, 27, 386 ; Sun- 
day child, 28 ; wives, 27, 29 ; 
children, 27, 28, 29, — reason of 
their names, 28, 33 ; family en- 
nobled, 29, 30, 78 ; petitions for 
place for Emanuel, 45 ; love of 
writing and printing, 26, 27 ; 
works printed, 27,34, — expected 
they would be used to wrap 
cakes and pies, 361 {note) ; char- 
acter, 30-32 ; belief in spirits 
and angels, 30, 31 ; fondness for 
music, 31 ; spiritual experience, 
31 ; use of money, 18, 21, 27, 39, 
40, 41, 73 ; Shibboleth, 64, jt, ; 
failure of strength. 26; death, 
30; burial, 100 ; mentioned by 
Springer, 335 ; by Wetterbey, 

395- 

Swedberg, Jesper, son of pre- 
ceding, 28, 29, -/2- 

Swedberg, Margaretha, 29 ; hus- 
band, 74, 75. 

Sweden, the homestead, 15, 395. 

Sweden, left by SwedenbOrg for 
the last time, 379 ; stronghold 
of Protestantism, 415. 

Swedenborg, Anna. See Swed- 
berg, Anna. 

Swedenborg, Emanuel, parentage, 
15-33. Mother, 29. Birth, 29, 

34. Christian name, 28, 33. 
Childhood at Upsal, 22, 34. 
Childhood thoughts, 33. Early 
life, to Dr. Beyer, 33, 355. Grad- 
uated, 34. Proposed course, 

35, 39. Learns to play the 
organ, 35 ; book-binding, 35 ; 
other trades, 37, 38, 41. Dan- 
gers of first voyage, 35, 36. 
Travels in England, 35 ; France, 
40, 107, 108; Germany, 42, 44, 



92; Holland, 40, 8^, 105, 182; 
Italy, 107. Studies astronomy, 
37, 38 ; chemistry, 68, 81 ; math- 
ematics, 35, 39, 40, 42 ; mechan- 
ics, 37, 42-44, 51, 56, 58 ; min- 
ing, 77, 80, 97 ; music, 35 ; New- 
ton, 36, 120; geology, yy % 78; 
anatomy, yy, 81, 101, 134, 147, 
1 52, 297 ; Hebrew, 229 ; Scrip- 
tures, 229-261. Plans for air- 
guns, 43, 46 ; cords and springs, 
43 ; docks and dykes, 84 ; draw- 
bridge, 42 ; drawing mechanical- 
ly, 43 ; fire-engine, 42, 47; flying- 
machine, 43, 54 ; the future, 79, 
80; method of analyzing de- 
sires, 43; mechanical carriage, 
43 ; musical instrument, 43 ; 
mode of working copper, 86; 
mode of working steel, 91 ; new 
stoves, 77 ; new mode of count- 
ing, 63, 64, 66, 68 ; siphon, 42 ;' 
sluices and locks, 42, 46 ; trans- 
porting ships, 46, 72; sub- 
marine vessel, 42, 46; observa- 
tory, 47, 62, 67 ; water-clock, 
43. Talk of professorship, 47, 
51, 65, 68, 406. Intercourse 
with Flamsteed, 17 ; with Abbe 
Bignon, 41 ; with De La Hire, 
41 ; with Charles XII., 56-70. 
Engineering for Charles XII., 
58-69. Daedalus, 33-58 ; hopes 
future things to be better than 
Daedalus, 6S, 78. Little encour- 
agement in Sweden, 69, 79, 80. 
Love of novelties, 66. Proposes 
to go to Norway with Charles 
XII., 73 ; glad he did not go, 
75. Family relations, 73, 74. 
Contemplated marriage, 71, 72,' 
408. Takes his new name, 78. 
Takes seat in Diet, 87 ; mem- 
orializes Diet, 87, 89, 90, 275, 
332, 333 ; interest in Diet, 381. 
Appointed to College of Mines, 
57, 59, 60; petitions for salary, 
83 ; takes seat in college, 87 ; 
petitions for leave of absence, 
91, 98, 100, 102, 149 ; resigns 
seat, 261, 262. Income and 
property, 22, 39, 73, 74, 75, 83, 
91, 101, 151, 263, 265. Improve- 
ments in copper-working, 86 ; 



470 



INDEX. 



in iron, 90 ; in mining, 98. Lan- 
guages used, 40, 49, 341, 377. 
Poetry, 26, 34, 39> 43> 44, 46, 47, 
52, 332. Mode of reasoning, 
86. No desire for applause, 124, 
141. Writings for those who 
have not faith, 153. Sought 
First Cause, 86. Philosophical 
studies, 109-168. Did not use 
his own experiments, 136. Spir- 
itual preparation, 169-194, 318, 
369 ; dreams, 173-197 ; relieved 
from love of the sex and his 
own works, 174; the Lord ap- 
peared to him, 180, 203 ; motto, 
186; thought on the wood of 
the cross, 187 ; ideas of the 
Trinity, 182, 231, 258, 259, 
309, 310; thought himself the 
greatest sinner, 184; arrogance 
would come, 185 ; prayed for 
grace not to be his own, 187 ; 
saw inner man to be distinct 
from outer, 188 ; first open 
vision, 202-204. Why from a 
philosopher he became a theo- 
logian, 173, 368. Preparation 
from youth, 171, 190. Appetite 
to be restrained, 191, 203. Pu- 
rification represented by appear- 
ing to write a fine hand, 197. 
Swoon, 197. Early respect for 
the Word of God, 79. Thoughts 
of interpreting Scripture, 149. 
Learned that he was to unfold 
the Word, 261. Experienced 
that there was no evil with him, 
205 ; that he was not anything, 
206. Neglect of self in theolog- 
ical works, 260. Protected, 206. 
Voyages prosperous, 206, 336, 
352 ; foretold their duration, 
336. Freed from care, 263, 264. 
Learned nature of spirits, 202, 
215, 222, 235. Growth of spirit- 
ual ideas, 215-228. How in- 
structed, 238, 351 ; how directed 
in writing, and that to be de- 
stroyed which was not from the 
Lord, 244, 245. Gj orwell's 
statement of inspiration, 386. 
Hebrew first to be learned, and 
correspondences, 353. Forbid- 
den to read systematic theology, 



353. Word had to be read many 
times, 353. Prepared from 
1710-1744,369. His part in the 
judgment, 284. Experience in 
other world, lay as dead, 303. 
Enabled to see from whom any 
evil or falsity came, 299. Intro- 
duced into the good represented 
by John, 286. Change of spirit, 
and angelic company evident, 
322 ; yet a sinner while in this 
sinful bod}-, 337. Life not per- 
fect, but had tried to do as well 
as he could, 400. Infested at 
times with evil spirits, 206, 338, 
379, 380. Character described 
by Hartley, 326 ; Messiter, 328 ; 
Hopkins, 332; Springer, 335; 
Cuno, 341 ; Jung-Stilling, 345 ; 
Claudius, 372 ; Robsahm, 378; 
Andersson, the gardener, 379, 
380; Gjorwell, 384 ; Collin, 388 ; 
Scherer, 389 ; Shearsmith, 402 ; 
Sandels, 404, 405. Appearance 
and manners, 398. Described by 
Tuxen, 329-331 ; Ferelius, 339 ; 
Bergstrom, 340 ; Hart, 340, 341 ; 
Burkhardt, 341 ; Cuno, 341-343 ; 
Robsahm, 381, 382 ; Gjorwell, 
384 ; Collin, 388 ; Shearsmith, 
402 ; Sandels, 408. Fond of mu- 
sic, 331 ; of good children, 340, 
343, 39 2 , 400 5 of gardening, 264, 
2 75, 394- Happiness, 408, 409. 
Health, 99, 379, 402 ; tooth- 
ache, 379 ; food, 335, 340, 376, 
402 ; snuff, 402. Modest style 
of living, 263, 342 ; dress, 
339, 342, 377, 402. Manner of 
speech, 339, 341, 342, 377, 384. 
Sleep, 376, 401. Originality, 407. 
Aim as a philosopher, 407. Pre- 
ference for quiet life in Sweden, 
150. Lodgings, 263, 341, 342, 
401. Wanted harmony in the 
house, 401, 408. Own house and 
garden, yjy 376, 377, 384, 393, 
394, 396< 400. Gardener and 
wife, 394 ; their story, 397- 
400. Not lacking nor wasting 
money, 401. Paid for print- 
ing his books, proceeds go for 
propagation of the Gospel, 265. 
Rules of life, 169, 405. Not 



INDEX. 



471 



in peace at church, 338, 398, 
401. Receiving the commuri- 
ion, 176, 192, 194, 237, 403- 
Every day a Sabbath, 402. 
Spiritual association, 251, 253, 
321. Friends of later life, 322 ; 
exhorts them to good life, 328, 
336, 342. Affirms the truth of 
his mission and revelations, 328, 
333> 337, 362, 3 8 7- . Nature of 
mission and doctrines as told 
by Gjorwell, 385. Could not 
cause spirits to speak with 
others, 363. Declined to seek 
an interview with Collin's broth- 
er, 387. Would not ask about 
the fate of the Prince of Saxe- 
Coburg, 390. Conversible with 
honest men, 339, 343, 377. De- 
clined answering impertinent 
questions, 339, 340. Cautious 
about private conversations, 
391. Manner abstracted in later 
life, 341. Heard talking with 
spirits, 338, 401. Appearance as 
coming out of a trance, 330. 
Expression after speaking with 
angels, 3S0; with evil spirits, 
380. Attached his name to 
C. L., 306; to B. E., 309; to 
T. C. R. 315, — induced by 
Hartley, 326. Correspondence 
with Benzelius, 35-82 ; Dr. 
Beyer, 309, 352-357, 365,366; 
Tuxen, 359; Oetinger, 368. 
Charged with heresy, yj7 '■> 
letters of remonstrance to the 
Consistory, etc., 358-378. Death 
not to come till after printing 
T. C. R. 379. Foretold his own 
death, and Dr. Messiter's, 328, 
402 ; Olofsohn's, 389. Willing- 
ness to leave the world, but not 
so much difference if one is 
conjoined with the Lord, 343. 
Has set a standard in advance, 
399. Thought visionary by fam- 
ily, but venerated, 396. Offered 
a home in England, but de- 
clined, 323. On friendly terms 
with royal family and digni- 
taries of his country, 323. Con- 
clusion of life, 321 ; paralytic 
stroke, 338, 402, 408 ; in bed for 



several days, 380 ; in a trance 
some weeks, 402 ; death, 403, 
408; burial, 337, 403. Sandels' 
eulogy, 404-408. 
Swedenborg's published works: 
Academical thesis, 34. Eccle- 
siastes, xii., in Latin verse, 34. 
Camena Borea, 47. Daedalus, 
46-72; dedication, 49; little 
thought of by its author, 68. 
Ludus Heliconius, 44, 52. Al- 
gebra, 64, 67, 70. Mode of find- 
ing longitude, 38, 39, 41, 47, 70, 
84. On the tinware of Stiern- 
sund, 66. Miscellaneous obser- 
vations, 84. Principles of Chem- 
istry, 84. Opera Philosophica, 
including Principia, 87, 92-98, 
125, 213, 406; cited, 121-124; 
Oetinger on, 368. On the Infi- 
nite, 92, 126; cited, 127-134. 
Economy of the Animal King- 
dom, cited, 76, 135-145* T 75> T 97 ; 
published, 108; described, 134, 
152, 153. Faith and Good 
Works, 146. On the Soul, 163, 
170. On the Brain, 161. Ra- 
tional Psychology, 141, 152, 163, 

170. Hieroglyphic Key, 148. 
Dreams, 174-196. Worship and 
Love of God, 195-197, 203, 207, 
223,224,226,229,231,261. Ad- 
versaria, described, 229 ; cited, 

171, 219, 229-238, 244, 245, 250. 
272, 282. The Messiah about 
to come into the world, 230. 
Animal Kingdom, described, 
147, 152; cited, 153, 159, 161, 
163, 170, 175, 189, 191, 194, 197, 
200, 261. Biblical Index, 249, 
250, 264, 272. Spiritual Diary, 
173, 202, 205, 206, 215-222, 245- 
253, 264, 265, 282, 283, 322, 410. 
Arcana Coelestia, cited, 172, 206, 
217, 220, 222,225, 24i-243» 253; 
described and cited, 264-275; 
English translation of second 
volume, 265 ; cost and price, 
265 ; sale slow, only four copies 
in two months, 265 ; all but nine 
copies sold, 338 ; purchased by 
Kant, 125; sent to Dr. Beyer, 
352. Intercourse of Soul and 
Body,- 126, 173, 271, 314. On 



472 



INDEX. 



Heaven and Hell, 217, 218, 271. 
Earths in the Universe, 272. 
Last Judgment, 284. Continu- 
ation of Last Judgment, 284, 
291. New Jerusalem and its 
Heavenly Doctrine, 272, 280. 
White Horse, 272. Doctrines 
of the Lord, the Sacred Scrip- 
ture, Life, Faith, 291. Apoca- 
lypse Explained, cited, 217, 239, 
240 ; described, 284-290, 300 ; 
publishers of, 286, 287, 328. 
Apocalypse Revealed, 284, 287, 
300; cited, 305, 351, 354. Di- 
vine Love and Wisdom, 291- 
297. Divine Providence, 146, 
225, 238, 297-299. Conjugial 
Love, 305-308, 360, 363. Brief 
Exposition, 309, 355. True 
Christian Religion, cited, 209, 
217, 225, 231, 238,256; publica- 
tion of, 306, 30S, 315, 365 ; style 
and contents, 316; bought by 
Paris booksellers, 316; distri- 
bution, 365, 366. Answer to a 
letter from a friend, 314. An- 
swer to nine questions, 314; 
Canons of the Xew Church, 
315. Coronis to T. C. R , 321. 
Works declared heretical, 363 ; 
distributed to clergy, universi- 
ties, etc., 328, 33 7, 354, 3 8 4 5 
their style, 316. 

Swedenborgianism, 358, 361, 362, 
370. 

Swedish Bible, revised by Swed- 
berg, 21, 22, 30. 

Swedish Church, in Delaware and 
Pennsylvania, 22 {note), 27, 74, 
386 ; in Lisbon, 27 ; in London, 

17- 

Swedish Grammar, 17. 

Swedish King, Gustavus Adol- 
phus, saved Protestantism in 
Europe, 117, 415. 

Sweetness of perception of not act- 
ing from one's self, 410. 



T. 

Tafel, J. F. I., 163, 229, 250, 316, 
388. 



Tafel, R. L., 62, 66, 161, 230, 264, 
348, 39 1 , 392, 394, 404- 

Temple, in vision, 228. 

Temptations of Swedenborg, 176- 
179, 182, 183, 205, 237. 

Tessin, Count, 363. 

Thales, in. 

Thomas, 112. 

Timber-worm, 93. 

Tracy, Destutt de, 1 19. 

Traill, Professor R., 327. 

Translators of Swedenborg, 84, 
96, 209, 305 (note), 317, 325. 

Transporting vessels over land, 
46, 7 2 , 33 2 - 

Trinity, ideas upon the, 182, 231, 
258, 259, 309, 310, — angels ob- 
jected to those in Swedenborg's 
mind, 259; change necessary, 
286. 

Trolhatta, 58, 61, 70. 

Truth, in descent changed to fal- 
sity, 298. 

Tulk, Charles Augustus, 317. 

Tuxen, General, 328 ; his account 
of Swedenborg, 329-331, — to 
whom he reported what was 
done in Sweden, 362, 411. 



U. 

Ulrica Eleonora. See Eleo- 

nora. 
Unge, Dean and Magister, 26, 27, 

73-75- 
Universities first to be instructed, 

354- 
Upmark, Professor, 47. 
Upsal, 22 ; fire at, 23 ; Literary 

Society, 38. 
Uses, good and evil, 295. 
Utrecht, 41. 



Valerius, Professor, 67, 71. 
Vassenius, 63, 69. 
Vaughan, Thomas, 199. 
Venator, letter to, 348. 
Vibrations, vital nature consists 
of, 72, 77. 



INDEX. 



473 



Vingaker, Swedberg pastor at, 20, 

21. 
Visions, various kinds, 248, 249. 
Voltaire, 120. 
Vortical theory, 78, 96. 



W. 

Wallerius, Dr., 387. 

Walpole, Sir Horace, 5. 

Warrignon, 41. 

Watts, Dr. Isaac, 10, 37, App. III. 

Webster, Daniel, 114. 

Wener, Lake, 58, 68. 

Wenersborg, 63, 68. 

Wenngren, 350. 

Wesley, John, 12, 193, 339, 403, 

App. VI. 
Wetter, Lake, 47, 68. 
Wetterbey, Dr., his Altartaflan, 

394- 
Whiskey, Swedenborg on, 275. 
White, William, cited, 20-22. 
Whitefield, George, 12. 
Wilkinson, Dr. J. J. G., 45, 84, 160, 

161, 200, 207, 317. 



Wilson, Bishop, 11. 

Wisdom, how attained, 121, 122. 

Witt, Secretary, 104. 

Wolf, Christopher, 104, 105. 

Wolff, Johan Christian von, 95, 
104, 117, 124, 142,405- 

Wollan, Colonel, 90. 

Word, The, of God, the founda- 
tion of all wisdom, 79; full of 
heavenly arcana, 213, 214, 233, 
266, 287-298; interior senses, 
287, 290, 294, — how to be reveal- 
ed, 214; angels near when man 
reads, 288; the source of all 
theology, 353. 

Wren, Sir Christopher, yj' 

Wiirtemberg, Duke of, 368. 

Wycliffe, 116. 



Ystad, 51, 92, 151. 



Z. 

ZlNZENDORF, 12, App. VI. 



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